Language Is Not All You Need: Aligning Perception with Language Models

Original Paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2302.14045

By: Shaohan Huang, Li Dong, Wenhui Wang, Yaru Hao, Saksham Singhal, Shuming Ma, Tengchao Lv, Lei Cui, Owais Khan Mohammed, Barun Patra, Qiang Liu, Kriti Aggarwal, Zewen Chi, Johan Bjorck, Vishrav Chaudhary, Subhojit Som, Xia Song, Furu Wei

Abstract:

A big convergence of language, multimodal perception, action, and world modeling is a key step toward artificial general intelligence. In this work, we introduce Kosmos-1, a Multimodal Large Language Model (MLLM) that can perceive general modalities, learn in context (i.e., few-shot), and follow instructions (i.e., zero-shot). Specifically, we train Kosmos-1 from scratch on web-scale multimodal corpora, including arbitrarily interleaved text and images, image-caption pairs, and text data. We evaluate various settings, including zero-shot, few-shot, and multimodal chain-of-thought prompting, on a wide range of tasks without any gradient updates or finetuning. Experimental results show that Kosmos-1 achieves impressive performance on (i) language understanding, generation, and even OCR-free NLP (directly fed with document images), (ii) perception-language tasks, including multimodal dialogue, image captioning, visual question answering, and (iii) vision tasks, such as image recognition with descriptions (specifying classification via text instructions). We also show that MLLMs can benefit from cross-modal transfer, i.e., transfer knowledge from language to multimodal, and from multimodal to language. In addition, we introduce a dataset of Raven IQ test, which diagnoses the nonverbal reasoning capability of MLLMs.

Summary Notes

Unlocking New AI Horizons with Multimodal Language Models

The advancement of artificial intelligence is taking a significant leap forward with the development of Multimodal Large Language Models (MLLMs), like Microsoft's KOSMOS-1.

This innovation is merging the worlds of language and perception, revolutionizing how machines comprehend and interact with their surroundings.

This breakthrough is particularly promising for enterprise companies, offering new ways to utilize AI through the integration of different types of data. Let's explore how KOSMOS-1 is reshaping AI models and its implications for the future of technology.

Traditional Language Models: A Brief Overview

Historically, AI has predominantly operated within the text domain. Models such as GPT-3 have shown remarkable proficiency in text generation and language understanding.

Yet, they lack in one key area—perception beyond text. This limitation is evident in tasks that require visual context understanding, showing a gap in AI's ability to process information like humans do, through multiple senses.

KOSMOS-1: Bridging the Gap

KOSMOS-1 represents a pioneering effort to overcome these limitations by understanding both text and images. This multimodal approach enables a more comprehensive comprehension of the world, akin to human cognition.

Key Features of KOSMOS-1:

• Multimodal Understanding: Processes text and images for a deeper content understanding.
• Transformer-based Architecture: Utilizes a sophisticated framework for effective multimodal learning.
• Diverse Training Data: Benefits from training on a vast range of text, images, and their combinations.

Opportunities for AI Engineers

KOSMOS-1 opens up new possibilities for AI engineers, especially in enterprise settings:

• Enhanced Customer Interactions: AI can now provide more personalized responses by interpreting visual and textual cues.
• Advanced Content Creation: Enables the generation of engaging content that integrates both text and imagery.
• Improved Data Analysis: Facilitates the extraction and interpretation of information from varied data sources, including documents with images.

Tips for Implementing KOSMOS-1

Successfully integrating KOSMOS-1 into your projects involves careful planning:

• Understand Your Data: Identify how multimodal data can enhance your applications.
• Experiment with Fine-tuning: Tailor the model to your specific needs for optimal performance.
• Focus on User Experience: Use multimodal capabilities to create more immersive and intuitive user interactions.

Looking Ahead: The Future of AI

KOSMOS-1 marks a significant milestone in AI's evolution, moving towards a more holistic understanding of the world that includes both language and perception.

For AI engineers, it unveils new opportunities for creating engaging applications and deriving insights from multimodal data.

As we delve further into the potential of models like KOSMOS-1, it's clear that the future of AI extends beyond mere language understanding.

It's about developing a comprehensive perception of the world, combining text, images, and more to craft truly intelligent systems.

With the emergence of multimodal large language models, we're inching closer to mimicking human-like understanding in machines, opening up a new chapter in the AI journey.