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Abacus.AI Releases Open-Source AI Model ‘Dracarys’ for Coding
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Generative AI for coding gets a boost: Abacus.ai has released Dracarys, a new family of open-source large language models (LLMs) specifically optimized for coding tasks.

  • Dracarys applies a fine-tuning “recipe” to existing LLMs, significantly improving their coding abilities.
  • The initial release focuses on the 70B parameter class of models, including Meta’s Llama 3.1 and Qwen-2 72B.
  • Abacus.ai has previously released Smaug-72B, a general-purpose LLM, showcasing their penchant for using dragon-inspired names from popular fiction.

Performance improvements: Benchmarks indicate substantial enhancements in coding capabilities for models treated with the Dracarys recipe.

  • LiveBench coding scores show an increase from 32.67 to 35.23 for the meta-llama-3.1-70b-instruct turbo model after applying the Dracarys recipe.
  • The qwen2-72b-instruct model saw an even more significant boost, with its coding score rising from 32.38 to 38.95.
  • Bindu Reddy, CEO and co-founder of Abacus.ai, claims that Dracarys-72B-Instruct is now the best coding model in its class among open-source options.

Competitive landscape: The release of Dracarys enters a growing market for generative AI in application development and coding.

  • GitHub Copilot pioneered the space, offering code completion and development assistance.
  • Startups like Tabnine and Replit have been developing similar LLM-powered features for developers.
  • Major LLM providers are also competing in this space, with Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Sonnet emerging as a popular choice for coding tasks in 2024.

Availability and future plans: Abacus.ai is making Dracarys accessible through various channels and plans to expand its application.

  • Model weights for both Llama and Qwen2-based Dracarys versions are available on Hugging Face.
  • The fine-tuned models are part of Abacus.ai’s Enterprise offering, providing an option for companies concerned about data privacy when using public APIs.
  • Abacus.ai is considering making Dracarys available on their ChatLLM service for small teams and professionals if there’s sufficient demand.
  • Future plans include releasing Dracarys versions for Deepseek-coder and Llama-3.1 400b models.

Implications for enterprise coding: The improved performance of Dracarys models could have significant benefits for developers and enterprises.

  • Enhanced coding capabilities may lead to increased productivity and efficiency in software development processes.
  • The availability of open-source models with improved coding abilities provides alternatives to closed-source solutions, potentially reducing dependency on specific vendors.
  • Enterprises concerned about data privacy when using public APIs for coding assistance now have access to high-performing, on-premises options.

Looking ahead: The release of Dracarys signals ongoing advancements in AI-assisted coding and software development.

  • As more models adopt similar fine-tuning techniques, we may see a general improvement in the coding capabilities of open-source LLMs.
  • The competition between open-source and closed-source models for coding tasks is likely to intensify, potentially driving further innovation in the field.
  • The integration of these advanced coding models into development workflows could reshape how software is created and maintained in the enterprise environment.
Open source Dracarys models ignite generative AI fired coding

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