Compare GLM-OCR vs. Mu

GLM-OCR is an advanced multimodal optical character recognition system and an open-source framework that excels in delivering precise, efficient, and thorough document comprehension by integrating textual and visual elements within a cohesive encoder-decoder design inspired by the GLM-V series. This model features a visual encoder that has been pre-trained on extensive image-text datasets alongside a streamlined cross-modal connector that channels information into a GLM-0.5B language decoder. It offers capabilities for layout detection, simultaneous recognition of various regions, and structured outputs for diverse content types, including text, tables, formulas, and intricate real-world document formats. Furthermore, it employs Multi-Token Prediction (MTP) loss and robust full-task reinforcement learning techniques to enhance training efficiency, boost recognition accuracy, and improve generalization across various tasks, leading to remarkable performance on significant document understanding challenges. This innovative approach not only sets new benchmarks but also opens up possibilities for further advancements in the field of document analysis.

On June 23, 2025, Microsoft unveiled Mu, an innovative 330-million-parameter encoder–decoder language model specifically crafted to enhance the agent experience within Windows environments by effectively translating natural language inquiries into function calls for Settings, all processed on-device via NPUs at a remarkable speed of over 100 tokens per second while ensuring impressive accuracy. By leveraging Phi Silica optimizations, Mu’s encoder–decoder design employs a fixed-length latent representation that significantly reduces both computational demands and memory usage, achieving a 47 percent reduction in first-token latency and a decoding speed that is 4.7 times greater on Qualcomm Hexagon NPUs when compared to other decoder-only models. Additionally, the model benefits from hardware-aware tuning techniques, which include a thoughtful 2/3–1/3 split of encoder and decoder parameters, shared weights for input and output embeddings, Dual LayerNorm, rotary positional embeddings, and grouped-query attention, allowing for swift inference rates exceeding 200 tokens per second on devices such as the Surface Laptop 7, along with sub-500 ms response times for settings-related queries. This combination of features positions Mu as a groundbreaking advancement in on-device language processing capabilities.