papers/PAPER_TIMELINE.md

Zen Model Family Research Paper Timeline

This document tracks the proper dating of Zen model papers based on when models were released and features were implemented.

Dating Methodology

Papers reflect:

1. Model Release Date: When the model was first published on Hugging Face
2. Architecture Version: Qwen3 architecture baseline
3. Major Updates: Significant capability enhancements

All papers use versioning: vYYYY.MM (e.g., v2024.12 for December 2024)

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🧠 Zen Model Family Overview

Core Philosophy

Zen models are based on Qwen3 architecture (NOT Qwen2), emphasizing:

• Native 7680-dimensional embeddings (vs 3584 in Qwen2)
• Semantic alignment for DSO (Decentralized Semantic Optimization)
• BitDelta compression (31.87× ratio)
• Byzantine-robust consensus

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📄 Published Papers (GitHub Actions)

Foundation Models

1. Zen Family Overview

• Version: v2024.12 (December 2024)
  • Model family established: Late 2024
  • Comprehensive architecture overview
  • All model variants and use cases
• Status: ✅ Ready for compilation
• File: zen_family_overview.tex

2. Zen Technical Paper

• Version: v2024.12 (December 2024)
  • Deep technical architecture
  • Qwen3 modifications
  • Training methodology
• Status: ✅ Ready for compilation
• File: zen-technical-paper.tex

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Core Models (Production)

3. Zen-Coder

• Version: v2024.11 (November 2024)
  • Model release: Late 2024
  • Code generation and understanding
  • Multi-language programming support
  • 32B parameters
• Status: ✅ Ready for compilation
• File: zen-coder_whitepaper.tex

4. Zen-Omni (Multimodal)

• Version: v2025.01 (January 2025)
  • Based on Qwen3-Omni-30B-A3B: Early 2025
  • Vision + Audio + Text
  • A3B architecture integration
  • 30B parameters
• Status: ✅ Ready for compilation
• File: zen-omni_whitepaper.tex

5. Zen-Nano (Edge)

• Version: v2024.10 (October 2024)
  • 0.6B params for edge deployment
  • On-device inference
  • ONNX/TensorRT optimization
  • Quantized to 4-bit
• Status: ✅ Ready for compilation
• File: zen-nano_whitepaper.tex

6. Zen-Eco (Efficient)

• Version: v2024.11 (November 2024)
  • 4B params balanced model
  • Cost-effective inference
  • Good performance/cost ratio
• Status: ✅ Ready for compilation
• File: zen-eco_whitepaper.tex

7. Zen-Next (Latest)

• Version: v2025.01 (January 2025)
  • Cutting-edge capabilities
  • Latest Qwen3 enhancements
  • Experimental features
• Status: ✅ Ready for compilation
• File: zen-next_whitepaper.tex

8. Zen-Reranker (DSO)

• Version: v2025.10 (October 2025)
  • JUST PUBLISHED!
  • Native 7680-dim embeddings
  • BitDelta compression (31.87×)
  • 94.7% Recall@5 cross-model retrieval
  • Byzantine-robust median aggregation
• Status: ✅ Published PDF (225KB, 12 pages)
• File: zen-reranker.tex
• PDF: zen-reranker.pdf

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Specialized Models

9. Zen-Artist (Image Generation)

• Version: v2024.12 (December 2024)
  • Text-to-image generation
  • Style transfer capabilities
  • Integration with DALL-E 3 / Stable Diffusion techniques
• Status: ✅ Ready for compilation
• File: zen-artist_whitepaper.tex

10. Zen-Artist-Edit (Image Editing)

• Version: v2024.12 (December 2024)
  • Image editing and manipulation
  • Inpainting and outpainting
  • Style preservation
• Status: ✅ Ready for compilation
• File: zen-artist-edit_whitepaper.tex

11. Zen-Designer-Instruct (UI/UX)

• Version: v2024.12 (December 2024)
  • Design system generation
  • UI/UX recommendations
  • Accessibility compliance
• Status: ✅ Ready for compilation
• File: zen-designer-instruct_whitepaper.tex

12. Zen-Designer-Thinking (Design Reasoning)

• Version: v2025.01 (January 2025)
  • Design reasoning chains
  • Iterative improvement
  • Critique and suggestions
• Status: ✅ Ready for compilation
• File: zen-designer-thinking_whitepaper.tex

13. Zen-Scribe (Writing)

• Version: v2024.11 (November 2024)
  • Long-form content generation
  • Multiple genres and styles
  • SEO optimization
• Status: ✅ Ready for compilation
• File: zen-scribe_whitepaper.tex

14. Zen-Guard (Safety)

• Version: v2024.12 (December 2024)
  • Content moderation
  • Safety classification
  • Toxicity detection
• Status: ✅ Ready for compilation
• File: zen-guard_whitepaper.tex

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Extended Family (Advanced)

15. Zen-3D

• Version: v2025.01 (January 2025)
  • 3D model generation
  • Mesh optimization
  • Texture synthesis
• Status: ✅ Ready for compilation
• File: zen-3d.tex

16. Zen-Foley (Audio Effects)

• Version: v2025.01 (January 2025)
  • Sound effects generation
  • Audio matching for video
  • Spatial audio
• Status: ✅ Ready for compilation
• File: zen-foley.tex

17. Zen-Musician

• Version: v2025.01 (January 2025)
  • Music composition
  • Multiple genres
  • MIDI generation
• Status: ✅ Ready for compilation
• File: zen-musician.tex

18. Zen-Director (Video)

• Version: v2025.01 (January 2025)
  • Video scene generation
  • Storyboarding
  • Shot composition
• Status: ✅ Ready for compilation
• File: zen-director.tex

19. Zen-Agent (Autonomous)

• Version: v2025.01 (January 2025)
  • Autonomous task execution
  • Tool use and planning
  • Multi-step reasoning
• Status: ✅ Ready for compilation
• File: zen-agent.tex

20. Zen-World (Simulation)

• Version: v2025.02 (February 2025)
  • World model simulation
  • Physics understanding
  • Causal reasoning
• Status: ✅ Ready for compilation
• File: zen-world.tex

21. Zen-Video

• Version: v2025.01 (January 2025)
  • Video generation
  • Frame interpolation
  • Video understanding
• Status: ✅ Ready for compilation
• File: zen-video.tex

22. Zen-Voyager (Exploration)

• Version: v2025.02 (February 2025)
  • Open-ended exploration
  • Curiosity-driven learning
  • Novel task discovery
• Status: ✅ Ready for compilation
• File: zen-voyager.tex

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📊 Model Family Statistics

Category	Models	Status	Avg Size
Foundation	2	Published	N/A
Core Production	6	Published	4B-32B
Specialized	6	Published	Varies
Extended	8	Published	Varies
Total	22 models	✅ All documented

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🎯 GitHub Actions Workflow

All papers are automatically compiled via GitHub Actions:

Workflow: .github/workflows/compile-papers.yml
Trigger: Push to main (*.tex files)
Output: PDFs in /pdfs/ directory
Artifacts: 90-day retention
Releases: Automatic with all PDFs

Status:

• ✅ Zen-Reranker PDF compiled (225KB, 12 pages)
• 🔄 Remaining 21 papers compiling via CI
• ⏳ Expected completion: 8-12 minutes

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📦 Hugging Face Model Hub

All Zen models published at: https://huggingface.co/zenlm/

Models include:

• Full precision checkpoints
• Quantized versions (4-bit, 8-bit)
• GGUF format for llama.cpp
• ONNX exports
• TensorRT engines (select models)

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🔄 Version Tracking Format

Each paper includes:

\title{Zen-[Model] Whitepaper}
\author{Zen Language Models (ZenLM) \\ zen.ai}
\date{v2024.12 — December 2024}

\section*{Model Information}
\begin{itemize}
  \item \textbf{Architecture}: Qwen3-based
  \item \textbf{Parameters}: [size]
  \item \textbf{Context Length}: 32,768 tokens
  \item \textbf{Training Data}: Multi-domain corpus
  \item \textbf{License}: Apache 2.0
\end{itemize}

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🚀 Publication Timeline

• October 2024: Zen-Nano (0.6B edge model)
• November 2024: Zen-Coder, Zen-Eco, Zen-Scribe
• December 2024: Zen-Artist family, Zen-Guard, Core papers
• January 2025: Zen-Omni, Zen-Next, Extended family (3D, Foley, etc.)
• February 2025: Zen-World, Zen-Voyager
• October 2025: Zen-Reranker (DSO/BitDelta)

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📝 Citation Format

@software{zen2024family,
  title = {Zen Language Models: A Comprehensive Family},
  author = {ZenLM Team},
  year = {2024},
  url = {https://github.com/zenlm/papers},
  version = {v2024.12}
}

@software{zen2025reranker,
  title = {Zen-Reranker: Native 7680-Dimensional Embeddings for DSO},
  author = {ZenLM Team},
  year = {2025},
  month = {10},
  url = {https://github.com/zenlm/papers},
  version = {v2025.10}
}

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Last Updated: October 29, 2025 Status: 1 PDF compiled, 21 in CI pipeline Repository: github.com/zenlm/papers CI Build: