Skip to main content

Introduction to the Model Evaluation Framework

Our community provides two mainstream model evaluation frameworks, lm-evaluation-harness and OpenCompass, which have their own characteristics and application scenarios.

lm-evaluation-harness

  1. Overview
    • This is a Python tool developed by EleutherAI designed to evaluate language models in a consistent way.
    • It can handle various tasks, including language modeling, zero-shot, and few-shot tasks.
  2. Features
    • Flexibility: It works with different models, including those from Hugging Face and OpenAI.
    • Variety of Tasks: It covers many NLP tasks like text generation, cloze tests, question answering, and translation.
    • Standardized Evaluation: It provides a fair way to compare the performance of different models using a uniform interface.
  3. Supported Models
    • Models from the Hugging Face Transformers library such as GPT-2, GPT-3, T5, and BERT.
    • OpenAI's API models (like GPT-3.5 and GPT-4).
    • Custom models (where users need to provide a suitable API interface or loading logic).
  4. Best Use Cases
    • Evaluating language models in research projects.
    • Comparing the performance of existing models, especially in studies involving LLMs.

OpenCompass

  1. Overview
    • OpenCompass is an open-source framework aimed at evaluating the performance of both domestic and international large language models.
    • It is maintained by local developers and the open-source community, with a focus on Chinese language tasks.
  2. Features
    • Local Support: Especially good for tasks in Chinese NLP, with many benchmark datasets available (like CLUE).
    • Compatibility: Works with Hugging Face models, open-source LLMs, and commercial models via APIs (like Baidu Wenxin and Alibaba Tongyi).
    • Easy to Extend: Users can easily add their own tasks or datasets.
  3. Supported Models
    • Hugging Face's Transformer models.
    • Open-source LLMs such as ChatGLM, MOSS, LLaMA, and Falcon.
    • Commercial models that offer APIs, including Baidu Wenxin, Alibaba Tongyi, and iFlytek Spark.
  4. Best Use Cases
    • Evaluating tasks in Chinese (like text classification and question generation).
    • Comparing how well different LLMs perform on Chinese language tasks.

Evalscope

  1. Overview
    • EvalScope is a model evaluation and performance benchmarking framework created by the ModelScope community, providing a one-stop solution for your model evaluation needs.
    • Maintained by domestic developers and the open-source community, supporting in-depth evaluation of Chinese corpora and tasks.
  2. Features
    • Localization Support: Built-in multiple industry-recognized test benchmarks and evaluation metrics: MMLU, CMMLU, C-Eval, GSM8K, etc.
    • Multi-model Compatibility: Supports Hugging Face models, open-source LLMs, and commercial models via APIs (such as Baidu Wenxin, Alibaba Tongyi).
    • Extensibility: Users can easily add custom tasks or datasets.
  3. Supported Models
    • Large language models.
    • Embedding models.
    • Multimodal models.
    • AIGC models.

Comparison

Featurelm-evaluation-harnessOpenCompassEvalScope
Task ScopeGlobal tasks (mainly in English)Focused on Chinese tasksGlobal tasks (mainly in English) + Chinese tasks
Model SupportOpen-source models + API modelsOpen-source models + domestic commercial modelsOpen-source models + domestic commercial models
Best Use CasesAcademic research, comparing mainly English modelsEvaluating Chinese tasks, comparing domestic and international modelsGlobal tasks (mainly in English) + Chinese tasks, comprehensive evaluation
Ease of UseMore suitable for technical usersUser-friendly, quick to add local tasksComprehensive, easy to use, supports both global and Chinese tasks

How to Choose?

  • If your evaluation tasks are mainly in English or you want to compare global LLMs, try lm-evaluation-harness.
  • If your tasks are primarily in Chinese or involve local commercial models, consider using OpenCompass.
  • If you need a comprehensive evaluation framework that supports both global and Chinese tasks, EvalScope is a good choice.
  • You can also use both systems together to better cover the performance comparison needs across different languages and tasks.