Technology Innovation Institute Launches AI Model With Vision-to-Language Capabilities

The United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based Technology Innovation Institute (TII) has announced a new iteration of its large language model (LLM).

The new Falcon 2 includes a model with image-to-text conversion capability, the TII said in a Monday (May 13) press release.

The Falcon 2 11B VLM, which is one of two versions of the new LLM, has vision-to-language model (VLM) capabilities that enable it to convert visual inputs into textual outputs, according to the release.

Potential applications of the VLM capabilities include document management, digital archiving, context indexing and supporting individuals with visual impairments, the release said.

The other new version, Falcon 2 11B, is designed to be a “more efficient and accessible LLM,” the release said. It has been trained on 5.5 trillion tokens with 11 billion parameters and matches or surpasses the performance of AI models in its class among pre-trained models. 

Both models are multilingual, enabling them to handle tasks in English, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese and various other languages, per the release. Both are also open-source, providing developers worldwide with unrestricted access.

Because they can run on one graphics processing unit (GPU), both can be integrated into laptops and other devices, according to the release.

“AI is continually evolving, and developers are recognizing the myriad benefits of smaller, more efficient models,” Dr. Hakim Hacid, executive director and acting chief researcher of the AI Cross-Center Unit at TII, said in the release. “In addition to reducing computing power requirements and meeting sustainability criteria, these models offer enhanced flexibility, seamlessly integrating into edge AI infrastructure, the next emerging megatrend.”

There’s been a trend toward developing smaller, more cost-effective AI models that make AI more accessible for businesses.

“Smaller LLMs offer users more control compared to large language models like ChatGPT or Anthropic’s Claude, making them more desirable in many instances,” Brian Peterson, co-founder and chief technology officer of Dialpad, a cloud-based, AI-powered platform, told PYMNTS in an interview posted in March. “They’re able to filter through a smaller subset of data, making them faster, more affordable, and, if you have your own data, far more customizable and even more accurate.”