This paper explores the imperative need and methodology for developing a
localized Large Language Model (LLM) tailored for Arabic, a language with
unique cultural characteristics that are not adequately addressed by current
mainstream models like ChatGPT. Key concerns additionally arise when
considering cultural sensitivity and local values. To this end, the paper
outlines a packaged solution, including further pre-training with Arabic texts,
supervised fine-tuning (SFT) using native Arabic instructions and GPT-4
responses in Arabic, and reinforcement learning with AI feedback (RLAIF) using
a reward model that is sensitive to local culture and values. The objective is
to train culturally aware and value-aligned Arabic LLMs that can serve the
diverse application-specific needs of Arabic-speaking communities.
Extensive evaluations demonstrated that the resulting LLM called `AceGPT' is
the SOTA open Arabic LLM in various benchmarks, including instruction-following
benchmark (i.e., Arabic Vicuna-80 and Arabic AlpacaEval), knowledge benchmark
(i.e., Arabic MMLU and EXAMs), as well as the newly-proposed Arabic cultural \&
value alignment benchmark. Notably, AceGPT outperforms ChatGPT in the popular
Vicuna-80 benchmark when evaluated with GPT-4, despite the benchmark's limited
scale. % Natural Language Understanding (NLU) benchmark (i.e., ALUE)
Codes, data, and models are in https://github.com/FreedomIntelligence/AceGPT.Comment: https://github.com/FreedomIntelligence/AceGP