NTT DATA, a global digital business and IT services leader, recently launched Tsuzumi through the Microsoft Azure AI Models-as-a-Service (MaaS) offering. This development represents a significant milestone in their 25-year collaboration, dedicated to pioneering technological solutions that drive sustainability and innovation.
Tsuzumi is a Large Language Model (LLM) with robust capabilities in both Japanese and English. It's designed to address environmental and financial challenges typically associated with LLMs. By adjusting model size without compromising performance, Tsuzumi makes advanced AI technologies, including Generative AI, accessible to a wider range of users and applications. One of its key features is operational adaptability, allowing it to quickly adjust to specific use-case requirements and reduce service provisioning costs. Initially available in Japan on the Azure MaaS platform, plans are underway to expand Tsuzumi's availability to other regions.
Initially available in Japan on the Azure MaaS platform, plans are underway to expand Tsuzumi availability to other regions. Advancements also are planned in multimodality, which will further enhance Tsuzumi's sophisticated capabilities and ensure it meets the evolving needs of businesses across the globe.
Tsuzumi is available in two versions: an ultra-lightweight version with a parameter size of 600 million (0.6B) and a lightweight version with a parameter size of 7 billion (7B), which are 1/300 and 1/25th the size of Open AI's GPT-3's 175 billion (175B), respectively. The lightweight version is designed to perform high-speed inference on a single GPU, while the ultra-lightweight version can do so on a CPU. This design significantly reduces the costs required for training, inference, and tuning.
The word Tsuzumi is a Japanese hand drum with an hourglass-shaped body and two drum heads. The heads are taut and have cords that can be tightened or loosened to adjust the tension. The tsuzumi is used in Japanese traditional music, including Noh, Nagauta, geza, and folk music. Some types of tsuzumi include the ko-tsuzumi and the san-no-tsuzumi, which is played with a wooden stick.
"tsuzumi" is currently in the process of trademark application. Focusing on the processing performance of the Japanese language, it represents the expectation for language model technology that drives industrial development, similar to how the tsuzumi drum initiates the start of a Gagaku (ancient Japanese court music and dance) ensemble.
NTT DATA remains committed to continuous innovation, ensuring that Tsuzumi stays at the forefront of AI technology. Advancements are also planned in multimodality, further enhancing Tsuzumi's capabilities to meet evolving business needs globally.
The launch of Tsuzumi comes at time when Indian IT giant Tech Mahindra has also announced the launch of Indian languages focused LLM 'Project Indic' , starting with Hindi language and its dialects.
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