The paper introduces GRIT, a method that trains AI

models to both generate and understand text,

improving their performance and efficiency. It
unifies two tasks - generating an answer and
representing an input - into one model. This leads to
better performance on benchmarks and speeds up
processes like Retrieval-Augmented Generation by
over 60% for long documents.
Problem: Usually, language models are good at
either generating text (like writing a sentence) or
understanding text (like understanding the meaning
of a sentence). But it’s hard for them to do both.

Example: It’s like being good at either cooking or

tasting food, but not both.
Solution (GRIT): The authors introduce a new
method called Generative Representational
Instruction Tuning (GRIT). This method trains a large
language model to handle both generative and
embedding tasks by distinguishing between them
through instructions.
Results: The resulting model, called GritLM, sets a
new state of the art on the Massive Text Embedding
Benchmark (MTEB) and outperforms all models up to
its size on a range of generative tasks.

Example: The student now excels in both essay

writing and book understanding competitions,
beating other students of the same grade level.
How does GRIT compare to other models in
terms of performance?

Versatility: GRIT is designed to handle both generative

and embedding tasks, making it more versatile than
models that specialize in only one of these tasks

State-of-the-Art Performance: The resulting model,

GritLM, sets a new state of the art on the Massive Text
Embedding Benchmark (MTEB) and outperforms all
models up to its size on a range of generative tasks

Speed and Efficiency: GRIT matches training on only

generative or embedding data, thus we can unify both
at no performance loss. This speeds up Retrieval-
Augmented Generation (RAG) by > 60% for long
documents, by no longer requiring separate retrieval
and generation models
 How does GRIT work ?
Understanding the Task: GRIT trains a language model
to understand whether it needs to generate text (tell a
joke) or embed text (explain a joke) based on the
instructions it’s given.

Performing the Task: The GRIT method trains the

model to be good at both generative tasks (like writing
a sentence) and embedding tasks (like understanding
the meaning of a sentence).

Improving Performance: The GRIT method improves

the model’s performance on both generative and
embedding tasks. It sets a new state of the art on the
Massive Text Embedding Benchmark (MTEB) and
outperforms all models up to its size on a range of
generative tasks.
How can we apply GRIT to other fields of
AI research?
Object Understanding: GRIT can be used in computer vision
for object understanding. For instance, a variant of GRIT,
called GRiT, has been used to understand objects via not
only simple nouns, but also rich descriptive sentences
including object attributes or actions
Learning Systems: GRIT can be integrated into learning
systems to enhance students’ grit and growth mindset. For
example, a mobile game-based learning system utilized
GRIT to help students make the most of their fragmented
time for learning, ultimately improving their learning
outcomes
Production-Ready AI: GRIT can be used in production
scenarios for software engineers, especially in areas like
LLMs, MLOps at the intersection with software engineering
and UX
 Akash Singh
@akshsingh

Follow and connect to know more about

the world of AI and ML

#AiPaper #inspiration