Aleph Alpha introduces new generation of AI language models

The AI start-up Aleph Alpha from Heidelberg has presented its new generation of control models. The models are specially designed for improved natural language processing and solving computational linguistic tasks.

Heidelberg - Partners and customers can now use the control models for any model. They are ideal for applications such as chatbots and digital assistants. They are particularly suitable for applications such as chatbots and digital assistants. A notable milestone of these new models is that they integrate important features for source verification and explainability of AI-generated content.

Our control models are able to deliver significantly better answers - in pilot customer evaluations they were neck and neck with the best models on the market

Jonas Andrulis, CEO & Founder Aleph Alpha

A key difference is that the models move from "few-shot prompting" to "zero-shot prompting". Normally, large language models are trained with few-shot prompting, where the model is given a series of examples to develop a context structure. In contrast, control models can generate more efficient and robust responses for different tasks by requiring only a single instruction - this is known as zero-shot prompting. This shortens the development cycles of chatbots and digital AI assistants. Users benefit from natural and seamless interactions between humans and machines as the models provide improved instruction understanding and immediate context.

Transparency in AI

All control models can understand relationships in information and display the textual sources that led to or contradict the system's generated responses based on verified facts. This feature was introduced by Aleph Alpha in April 2023 and published as open source in an academic publication. It enables transparency and traceability of AI-generated content, which meets the upcoming regulatory requirements of the EU AI Act in terms of explainability and traceability. According to Andrulis, Aleph Alpha's spokesperson, their explainability not only provides the necessary context for the factual statements of the models, but also enables verification and traceability of complex and critical AI support.

We first reported on the EUR 23 million financing round for Aleph Alpha in 2021, followed in May 2023 by the announcement of the investment in F13, the artificial intelligence for administration in Baden-Württemberg.