mPLUG-Owl: A Multi-modal Training Paradigm for Large Language Models

mPLUG-Owl is a training paradigm designed to equip large language models (LLMs) with multi-modal abilities, utilizing a modular approach that integrates visual knowledge and abstracting capabilities. This enables diverse unimodal and multimodal abilities through the collaborative interplay of different modalities.

Model Description

mPLUG-Owl combines a pre-trained LLM with a visual knowledge module and a visual abstractor module. The model is trained via a two-stage process. In the first stage, the visual knowledge and abstractor modules are trained in conjunction with a frozen LLM module to align image and text. In the second stage, a low-rank adaptation (LoRA) module on the LLM and the abstractor module are jointly fine-tuned using language-only and multi-modal supervised datasets, with the visual knowledge module remaining frozen.

This model has been designed to support multiple modalities and facilitate a broad range of unimodal and multimodal abilities through modality collaboration. Experimental results demonstrate that the model outperforms existing multi-modal models, showcasing mPLUG-Owl’s impressive instructional and visual understanding abilities, multi-turn conversation capability, and knowledge reasoning skills.

For more details, please refer to the original paper and Github repository.

Intended Use

mPLUG-Owl is intended for various applications requiring multi-modal understanding and generation. These include multi-turn conversation understanding, instruction following, visual comprehension, and knowledge reasoning. With unexpected capabilities such as multi-image correlation and scene text understanding, the model can be leveraged for complex real-world scenarios, including vision-only document comprehension.

Ethical Considerations

As with all AI models, it’s crucial to use mPLUG-Owl responsibly. Its understanding and generation capabilities depend on the data it was trained on. It might not always interpret or generate information accurately or ethically. Users should be cautious about potential misuse or unintentional propagation of bias or misinformation.

Caveats and Recommendations

While mPLUG-Owl performs well on a range of tasks, it’s important to understand its limitations. Its performance can vary depending on the complexity of the task and the quality and nature of the input data. For best results, ensure that the input data aligns with the model’s training data in terms of modality and content. Results should always be reviewed and interpreted in context.

Terms of Use

By using this service, users are required to agree to the following terms:

This model derives from LLaMA-7B and, as such, is not intended for commercial use. Further, this service only provides limited safety measures and may generate offensive content. It must not be used for any illegal, harmful, violent, racist, or sexual purposes.