Democratizing AI with Stability AI’s Initiative, StableLM

Artificial Intelligence is becoming a cornerstone of modern technology, transforming our work, lives, and communication. However, its development has largely remained in the domain of a handful of tech giants, limiting accessibility for smaller developers or independent researchers. A potential shift in this paradigm is visible in Stability AI's initiative - StableLM, an open-source language model aspiring to democratize AI. Developed by Stability AI, StableLM leverages a colossal dataset, "The Pile," comprising 1.5 trillion tokens of content. It encompasses models with parameters from 3 billion to 175 billion, facilitating diverse research and commercial applications. Furthermore, this open-source language model employs an assortment of datasets from recent models like Alpaca, GPT4All, Dolly, ShareGPT, and HH for fine-tuning.

StableLM represents a paradigm shift towards a more inclusive and universally accessible AI technology. In a bid to challenge dominant AI players and foster innovation, Stability AI plans to launch StableChat, a chat model devised to compete with OpenAI's ChatGPT. The democratization of AI isn't a novel endeavor for Stability AI. Their earlier project, Stable Diffusion, an open-source alternative to OpenAI’s DALL-E 2, rejuvenated the generative content market and spurred the conception of new business ideas. This accomplishment set the stage for the launch of StableLM in a market rife with competition.

Comparing StableLM with models like ChatGPT and LLama reveals unique advantages. While both ChatGPT and StableLM are designed for natural language processing (NLP) tasks, StableLM emphasizes transparency and accessibility. ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI, boasts a parameter count of 1 trillion, far exceeding StableLM's highest count of 175 billion. Furthermore, using ChatGPT entails costs, unlike the open-source StableLM. On the other hand, LLama, another open-source language model, relies on a different training dataset than StableLM's "The Pile." Regardless of the disparities, all three models present valuable alternatives for AI practitioners.

A potential partnership with AWS Bedrock, a platform providing a standard approach to building, training, and deploying machine learning models, could bolster StableLM's utility. Integrating StableLM with AWS Bedrock's infrastructure could allow developers to leverage StableLM's performance and AWS Bedrock's robust tools.

Enterprises favor open-source models like StableLM for their transparency, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness. These models promote rapid innovation, offer technology control, and lead to superior performance and targeted results. They are maintained by large developer communities, ensuring regular updates and continual innovation. StableLM demonstrates Stability AI's commitment to democratizing AI, and fostering diversity in the AI market. It brings forth a multitude of options, refined applications, and tools for users. The core of StableLM's value proposition lies in its dedication to transparency, accessibility, and user support.

Following the 2022 public release of the Stable Diffusion model, Stability AI continued its mission to democratize AI with the introduction of the StableLM set of models. Trained on an experimental dataset three times larger than "The Pile," StableLM shows excellent performance in conversational and coding tasks, despite having fewer parameters than GPT-3. In addition to this, Stability AI has introduced research models optimized for academic research. These models utilize data from recently released open-source conversational agent datasets such as Alpaca, GPT4All, Dolly, ShareGPT, and HH.

StableLM's vision revolves around fostering transparency, accessibility, and supportiveness. By focusing on enhancing AI's effectiveness in real-world tasks rather than chasing superhuman intelligence, Stability AI opens up innovative and practical applications of AI. This approach augments AI's potential to drive innovation, boost productivity, and expand economic prospects.

A Guide to Installing StableLM

StableLM can be installed using two different methods: one with a text generation web UI and the other with llama.cpp. Both of these methods provide a straightforward process for setting up StableLM on various operating systems including Windows, Linux, and macOS.

Installing StableLM with Text Generation Web UI

The installation process with the one-click installer involves a simple three-step procedure that works across Windows, Linux, and macOS. First, download the zip file and extract it. Then double-click on "start". These zip files are provided directly by the web UI's developer. Following this, the model can be downloaded from Hugging Face, completing the installation process.

Installing StableLM with llama.cpp

The installation procedure with llama.cpp varies slightly between Windows and Linux/macOS. For Windows, start by downloading the latest release and extracting the zip file. Next, create a "models" folder inside the extracted folder. After this, download the model and place it inside the model's folder. Lastly, run the following command, replacing 'path\to' with the actual directory path of your files: 'path\to\main.exe -m models\7B\ggml-model-stablelm-tuned-alpha-7b-q4_0.bin -n 128'.

For Linux and macOS, the procedure involves a series of commands run through the Terminal. Start by installing the necessary libraries with the'python3 -m pip install torch numpy sentencepiece'. Next, clone the llama.cpp repository from GitHub with 'git clone https://github.com/ggerganov/llama.cpp' and navigate to the llama.cpp directory with 'cd llama.cpp'. Compile the program with the 'make' command. Finally, download the pre-quantized model, or convert the original following the documentation provided in the llama.cpp GitHub page. To run StableLM, use the command './main -m ./models/7B/ggml-model-stablelm-tuned-alpha-7b-q4_0.bin -n 128'.

In sum, StableLM's introduction signifies a considerable leap in democratizing AI. Stability AI is at the forefront of a new AI era characterized by openness, scalability, and transparency, widening AI's economic benefits and making it more inclusive and accessible.

Summary

In this article, we have introduced StabilityLM, a new language model that is specifically designed to be more stable and robust than previous models. We have shown how to install StabilityLM using the Text Generation Web UI, as well as by compiling the llama.cpp code. We have also discussed some of the benefits of using StabilityLM, such as its improved stability and its ability to generate more creative and informative text. StabilityLM can be used for a variety of tasks, including text generation, translation, and summarization.

Overall, StabilityLM is a promising new language model that offers a number of advantages over previous models. If you are looking for a language model that is stable, robust, and creative, then StabilityLM is a good option to consider.

Author Bio

Julian Melanson is one of the founders of Leap Year Learning. Leap Year Learning is a cutting-edge online school that specializes in teaching creative disciplines and integrating AI tools. We believe that creativity and AI are the keys to a successful future and our courses help equip students with the skills they need to succeed in a continuously evolving world. Our seasoned instructors bring real-world experience to the virtual classroom and our interactive lessons help students reinforce their learning with hands-on activities.

No matter your background, from beginners to experts, hobbyists to professionals, Leap Year Learning is here to bring in the future of creativity, productivity, and learning!