Heidelberg-based AI company Aleph Alpha has unveiled a new generation of its AI models that promise to deliver explainable and trustworthy results. The control models are a new version of Aleph Alpha’s Luminous family, comprising three differently sized foundation models that have been “readjusted” in a process similar to that used by OpenAI. The models are designed to process natural language and solve complex linguistic tasks using an automated process that doesn’t require human feedback. The latest models offer greater explainability and reproducibility compared to previous versions, thanks to new research into how AI generates results.
According to Jonas Andrulis, the founder and managing director of Aleph Alpha, the control models are “the only option on the market that solves tasks with explainability, reproducibility, and trust”. The company’s research papers have examined topics such as attention manipulation, and how to contain distribution bias in large language models.
Aleph Alpha is focused on meeting the AI Act’s forthcoming regulatory requirements on explainability and traceability in AI-generated information. In response, the company has integrated features into its models that allow factual editions to be traced back to sources in texts and images, as well as counterfactual observations.
The latest models have been fine-tuned to more precisely follow instructions and commands, without replacing the existing basic models. The control models can be addressed in “zero-shot prompting” that requires less context to carry out tasks. This means they can deliver results with single instructions using five languages. According to Andrulis, Aleph Alpha’s technology is particularly well-suited to legal, healthcare and banking sectors, as well as public administration.
Aleph Alpha has worked with companies including the Cyberhub der Bundeswehr, a federal ministry, the city of Heidelberg, and the state of Baden-Württemberg. The latter has just been named the “most innovative” of Germany’s 16 federal states. The company has also partnered with IT consulting firms OnTech, adesso, the msg Group, and Sopra Steria, with a partnership with SAP reportedly in the offing.
While the new models are capable of providing more accurate answers than previous versions, no official benchmarks are available. Pilot customers involved in pre-launch evaluations of the latest models have remained unnamed for confidentiality reasons.
