RedPajama vs. OLMo 2

Foundation models, such as GPT-4, have propelled the field of artificial intelligence forward at an unprecedented pace; however, the most sophisticated models continue to be either restricted or only partially available to the public. To counteract this issue, the RedPajama initiative is focused on creating a suite of high-quality, completely open-source models. We are excited to share that we have successfully finished the first stage of this project: the recreation of the LLaMA training dataset, which encompasses over 1.2 trillion tokens. At present, a significant portion of leading foundation models is confined within commercial APIs, which limits opportunities for research and customization, especially when dealing with sensitive data. The pursuit of fully open-source models may offer a viable remedy to these constraints, on the condition that the open-source community can enhance the quality of these models to compete with their closed counterparts. Recent developments have indicated that there is encouraging progress in this domain, hinting that the AI sector may be on the brink of a revolutionary shift similar to what was seen with the introduction of Linux. The success of Stable Diffusion highlights that open-source alternatives can not only compete with high-end commercial products like DALL-E but also foster extraordinary creativity through the collaborative input of various communities. By nurturing a thriving open-source ecosystem, we can pave the way for new avenues of innovation and ensure that access to state-of-the-art AI technology is more widely available, ultimately democratizing the capabilities of artificial intelligence for all users.

OLMo 2 is a suite of fully open language models developed by the Allen Institute for AI (AI2), designed to provide researchers and developers with straightforward access to training datasets, open-source code, reproducible training methods, and extensive evaluations. These models are trained on a remarkable dataset consisting of up to 5 trillion tokens and are competitive with leading open-weight models such as Llama 3.1, especially in English academic assessments. A significant emphasis of OLMo 2 lies in maintaining training stability, utilizing techniques to reduce loss spikes during prolonged training sessions, and implementing staged training interventions to address capability weaknesses in the later phases of pretraining. Furthermore, the models incorporate advanced post-training methodologies inspired by AI2's Tülu 3, resulting in the creation of OLMo 2-Instruct models. To support continuous enhancements during the development lifecycle, an actionable evaluation framework called the Open Language Modeling Evaluation System (OLMES) has been established, featuring 20 benchmarks that assess vital capabilities. This thorough methodology not only promotes transparency but also actively encourages improvements in the performance of language models, ensuring they remain at the forefront of AI advancements. Ultimately, OLMo 2 aims to empower the research community by providing resources that foster innovation and collaboration in language modeling.