Paper · arXiv 2503.00865
Babel: Open Multilingual Large Language Models Serving Over 90% of Global Speakers
Yiran Zhao, Chaoqun Liu, Yue Deng, Jiahao Ying, Mahani Aljunied, Zhaodonghui Li, Lidong Bing, Hou Pong Chan, Yu Rong, Deli Zhao, Wenxuan Zhang
Babel is an open multilingual LLM that expands its parameter count through layer extension, covering numerous languages and achieving superior performance in multilingual tasks compared to other open LLMs.
Abstract
Large language models (LLMs) have revolutionized natural language processing (NLP), yet open-source multilingual LLMs remain scarce, with existing models often limited in language coverage. Such models typically prioritize well-resourced languages, while widely spoken but under-resourced languages are often overlooked. To address this disparity, we introduce Babel, an open multilingual LLM that covers the top 25 languages by number of speakers, supports over 90% of the global population, and includes many languages neglected by other open multilingual LLMs. Unlike traditional continue pretraining approaches, Babel expands its parameter count through a layer extension technique that elevates Babel's performance ceiling. We introduce two variants: Babel-9B, designed for efficient inference and fine-tuning, and Babel-83B, which sets a new standard for open multilingual LLMs. Extensive evaluations on multilingual tasks demonstrate its superior performance compared to open LLMs of comparable size. In addition, using open-source supervised fine-tuning datasets, Babel achieves remarkable performance, with Babel-9B-Chat leading among 10B-sized LLMs and Babel-83B-Chat setting a new standard for multilingual tasks, reaching the same level of commercial models.