Chinese researchers have introduced a groundbreaking compression technique aimed at addressing the hardware constraints associated with deploying large language models (LLMs). This new approach, termed ShortGPT, has been developed by experts from Baichuan Inc. and the Chinese Information Processing Laboratory Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The method builds upon existing pruning techniques, offering a solution to mitigate the inference costs of LLMs without requiring additional training.
Revolutionizing model compression
The ShortGPT method introduces a novel metric known as Block Influence (BI) to evaluate hidden state transformations within LLMs. By utilizing BI scores, the system identifies and eliminates redundant parameters, thereby optimizing the model for deployment on hardware with limited resources. This approach involves pruning layers based on their impact on model performance, ensuring that only essential components are retained.
Extensive experiments have demonstrated the superiority of ShortGPT over existing state-of-the-art (SOTA) pruning methods. Unlike conventional approaches that often rely on quantization methods, ShortGPT operates independently, enabling significant parameter reduction and computational efficiency without compromising model precision. This innovation underscores the remarkable redundancy within LLM architectures and showcases the potential for streamlined compression techniques.
China’s AI Ambitions
China has adopted a positive stance on AI adoption in recent years to match the pace of innovation in the U.S. and Europe. The country is actively improving the capacities of local AI, blockchain technology, and quantum computing service providers amid a brewing cold war with the United States.
Despite the forward-leaning posture, Chinese authorities are keen to prevent AI misuse by creating strict regulations and heavy-handed enforcement tactics. The mainland Chinese AI ecosystem is a beehive of activity, underscored by an avalanche of commercial rollouts of generative AI offerings by technology companies.
The introduction of ShortGPT represents a significant milestone in the field of AI compression, promising enhanced efficiency and performance for large language models. As China continues to drive innovation in artificial intelligence, its strategic investments and research initiatives position the country as a formidable player in the global tech landscape.