ChatGPT is phenomenal. However, it is prohibitively expensive to train and refine such giant models. Fortunately, small language models are flourishing and becoming more and more competent. We call them "mini-giants". We argue that open source community like Kaggle and mini-giants will win-win in many ways, technically, ethically and socially. In this article, we present a brief yet rich background, discuss how to attain small language models, present a comparative study of small language models and a brief discussion of evaluation methods, discuss the application scenarios where small language models are most needed in the real world, and conclude with discussion and outlook.

翻译：ChatGPT的表现令人瞩目，但训练和优化这类巨型模型的成本极其高昂。幸运的是，小型语言模型正在蓬勃发展并日趋成熟，我们将其称为"小巨人"。我们认为，以Kaggle为代表的开源社区与小巨人将在技术伦理和社会层面实现多方面共赢。本文首先提供简明而丰富的背景知识，进而探讨如何获取小型语言模型，开展小型语言模型的比较研究并简要讨论评估方法，分析现实世界中最需要小型语言模型的应用场景，最后进行讨论与展望。