Google released T5X checkpoints for MADLAD-400 a couple of months ago, but nobody could figure out how to run them. Turns out the vocabulary was wrong, but they uploaded the correct one last week.
I’ve converted the models to the safetensors format, and I created this space if you want to try the smaller model.
I also published quantized GGUF weights you can use with candle. It decodes at ~15tokens/s on a M2 Mac.
It seems that NLLB is the most popular machine translation model right now, but the license only allows non commercial usage. MADLAD-400 is CC BY 4.0.
Gibberish names have been a things since the 90s. It’s hard coming up with a name when everyone is racing to create the next Big Thing. Also, I think techies are more tolerant of cumbersome names/domains.