diff --git a/inference/utils/utils.py b/inference/utils/utils.py
index 1d8c39c2c..c29c8b7d9 100644
--- a/inference/utils/utils.py
+++ b/inference/utils/utils.py
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import argparse
 import copy
+import json
 import math
 from typing import Any, List
 
@@ -40,12 +41,8 @@ def get_argument_parser() -> argparse.ArgumentParser:
                        choices=["bf16", "fp16"], help="dtype for model")
     group.add_argument(
         "--generate_kwargs",
-        type=dict,
-        default={
-            "min_length": 100,
-            "max_new_tokens": 100,
-            "do_sample": False
-        },
+        type=str,
+        default='{"min_length": 100, "max_new_tokens": 100, "do_sample": False}',
         help="generate parameters. look at https://huggingface.co/docs/transformers/v4.21.1/en/main_classes/text_generation#transformers.generation_utils.GenerationMixin.generate to see the supported parameters"
     )
 
@@ -55,6 +52,7 @@ def get_argument_parser() -> argparse.ArgumentParser:
 def get_args(parser: argparse.ArgumentParser) -> argparse.Namespace:
     args = parser.parse_args()
     args.dtype = get_torch_dtype(args.dtype)
+    args.generate_kwargs = json.loads(args.generate_kwargs)
     return args