Most of the existing multi-modal models, hindered by their incapacity to adeptly manage interleaved image-and-text inputs in multi-image, multi-round dialogues, face substantial constraints in resource allocation for training and data accessibility, impacting their adaptability and scalability across varied interaction realms. To address this, we present the DeepSpeed-VisualChat framework, designed to optimize Large Language Models (LLMs) by incorporating multi-modal capabilities, with a focus on enhancing the proficiency of Large Vision and Language Models in handling interleaved inputs. Our framework is notable for (1) its open-source support for multi-round and multi-image dialogues, (2) introducing an innovative multi-modal causal attention mechanism, and (3) utilizing data blending techniques on existing datasets to assure seamless interactions in multi-round, multi-image conversations. Compared to existing frameworks, DeepSpeed-VisualChat shows superior scalability up to 70B parameter language model size, representing a significant advancement in multi-modal language models and setting a solid foundation for future explorations.
@article{arxiv.2309.14327,
title = {DeepSpeed-VisualChat: Multi-Round Multi-Image Interleave Chat via Multi-Modal Causal Attention},
author = {Zhewei Yao and Xiaoxia Wu and Conglong Li and Minjia Zhang and Heyang Qin and Olatunji Ruwase and Ammar Ahmad Awan and Samyam Rajbhandari and Yuxiong He},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2309.14327},
year = {2023}
}