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How does EleutherAI open-source GPT models?

Generation Details

Date LLM Access Method
Nov 2024 GPT-4 Web UI

Prompt

I see that Eleuther (AI) open-sources some GPTs.

I thought that GPTs specifically were an OpenAI invention?

Output

It's a common misconception that only OpenAI develops GPT models. While OpenAI created the original GPT (Generative Pretrained Transformer) architecture and has released models like GPT-2, GPT-3, and GPT-4, other organizations and open-source communities have since developed their own versions of GPT-like models based on the same underlying transformer architecture.

EleutherAI's GPT Models

EleutherAI is an independent AI research group that has created several powerful open-source GPT-like models, using architectures similar to OpenAI’s GPT models but developed independently. These models include:

1. GPT-Neo

  • Description: GPT-Neo is an open-source replication of GPT-3. It was developed by EleutherAI as a response to the closed nature of GPT-3.
  • Sizes: Available in 1.3 billion and 2.7 billion parameter versions.
  • Key Feature: Open-source, free to use, and hosted on platforms like Hugging Face for easy access.

2. GPT-J

  • Description: GPT-J-6B is one of EleutherAI’s most popular models and is known for its balance between power and efficiency. It performs close to GPT-3 at a smaller parameter size.
  • Size: 6 billion parameters.
  • Key Feature: Open-source with strong performance, particularly for a model of its size, making it a great alternative to GPT-3.

3. GPT-NeoX-20B

  • Description: GPT-NeoX is EleutherAI’s largest and most advanced model, with 20 billion parameters, designed to compete with OpenAI’s larger models like GPT-3.
  • Size: 20 billion parameters.
  • Key Feature: One of the largest open-source language models available, developed specifically for research and open access to large LLMs.

Differences Between OpenAI GPT Models and EleutherAI Models

  1. Accessibility:
  2. OpenAI GPT: GPT-3 and GPT-4 are available through paid APIs, but the models themselves are not open-sourced. You need to access them via OpenAI's API or their platform (e.g., ChatGPT).
  3. EleutherAI GPT Models: Models like GPT-Neo, GPT-J, and GPT-NeoX are open-source and can be downloaded and run locally or used through services like Hugging Face. You don’t need to rely on a proprietary API.
  4. Development:
  5. OpenAI GPT: Developed and fine-tuned using proprietary methods and large-scale training datasets curated by OpenAI. OpenAI also integrates reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF) to fine-tune models like GPT-4.
  6. EleutherAI GPT Models: Developed using publicly available datasets (e.g., The Pile, a large dataset of diverse text sources) and open-source tools. EleutherAI’s models are community-driven and focus on open access and transparency.
  7. Size and Performance:
  8. OpenAI’s GPT models (especially GPT-3 and GPT-4) are larger, with GPT-3 reaching up to 175 billion parameters. These models are highly optimized and fine-tuned for various downstream tasks.
  9. EleutherAI models are slightly smaller (e.g., GPT-J-6B and GPT-NeoX-20B), but they still offer strong performance, especially for research, prototyping, and smaller-scale deployments.

EleutherAI’s Motivation

EleutherAI was founded with a mission to democratize access to large language models. OpenAI's decision to keep GPT-3 and GPT-4 closed-source, only accessible via paid APIs, inspired EleutherAI to develop high-quality, open-source alternatives that could be freely accessed and used by researchers, developers, and the wider AI community.