Exploring Language Models

ML Engineer writing about the intersection of AI, Language Models, and Psychology. Open Source Developer (BERTopic, PolyFuzz, KeyBERT). Co-author of "Hands-On Large Language Models".

The hottest Substack posts of Exploring Language Models

And their main takeaways
3289 implied HN points 07 Oct 24
  1. Mixture of Experts (MoE) uses multiple smaller models, called experts, to help improve the performance of large language models. This way, only the most relevant experts are chosen to handle specific tasks.
  2. A router or gate network decides which experts are best for each input. This selection process makes the model more efficient by activating only the necessary parts of the system.
  3. Load balancing is critical in MoE because it ensures all experts are trained equally, preventing any one expert from becoming too dominant. This helps the model to learn better and work faster.
5092 implied HN points 22 Jul 24
  1. Quantization is a technique used to make large language models smaller by reducing the precision of their parameters, which helps with storage and speed. This is important because many models can be really massive and hard to run on normal computers.
  2. There are different ways to quantize models, like post-training quantization and quantization-aware training. Post-training means you quantize after the model is built, while quantization-aware training involves taking quantization into account during the model's training for better accuracy.
  3. Recent advances in quantization methods, like using 1-bit weights, can significantly reduce the size and improve the efficiency of models. This allows them to run faster and use less memory, which is especially beneficial for devices with limited resources.
3942 implied HN points 19 Feb 24
  1. Mamba is a new modeling technique that aims to improve language processing by using state space models instead of the traditional transformer approach. It focuses on keeping essential information while being efficient in handling sequences.
  2. Unlike transformers, Mamba allows for selective attention, meaning it can choose which parts of the input to focus on. This makes it potentially better at understanding context and relevant information.
  3. The architecture of Mamba is designed to be hardware-friendly, helping it to perform well without excessive resource use. It uses techniques like kernel fusion and recomputation to optimize speed and memory use.
435 implied HN points 21 Dec 23
  1. The book provides early releases of chapters for feedback from readers.
  2. The content of the book will be highly visual with a good balance of text, visuals, and code.
  3. The author tracks the writing process by focusing on chapters, words, time spent, and type of writing.
475 implied HN points 13 Nov 23
  1. Explore different quantization methods for Large Language Models (LLMs) like GPTQ, GGUF, and AWQ to find the right one for your needs.
  2. Consider sharding your model to distribute model weights and reduce GPU memory requirements.
  3. Quantization with methods like Bitsandbytes can help reduce memory usage of LLMs while maintaining performance, making it easier to load and use the models.
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435 implied HN points 05 Oct 23
  1. The KeyLLM tool allows for keyword extraction using Large Language Models (LLMs), including Mistral 7B model.
  2. Efficient keyword extraction can be achieved by leveraging embedding models to group similar documents together before extracting keywords.
  3. Combining KeyBERT with KeyLLM can further enhance the efficiency of keyword extraction by suggesting keywords to the LLM.
376 implied HN points 21 Aug 23
  1. BERTopic technique uses BERT to easily interpret topics without analyzing every document individually
  2. BERTopic works in 5 steps: Embedding documents, Reducing dimensionality of embeddings, Clustering reduced embeddings, Tokenizing documents, Extracting best-representing words
  3. Combining BERTopic with Llama 2 allows for better topic representation and creation by leveraging clusters
237 implied HN points 11 Sep 23
  1. Large Language Models like Llama 2 can be enhanced to approach top performance
  2. Improving LLM performance can be achieved through Prompt Engineering, Retrieval Augmented Generation, and Parameter Efficient Fine-Tuning
  3. Methods like Prompt Engineering allow for precise, efficient tuning of LLMs without updating the model itself
297 implied HN points 18 Jun 23
  1. Updates on the upcoming book 'Hands-On Large Language Models'
  2. Collaboration with Jay Alammar to share chapter releases and important resources
  3. Consideration of writing visually explanatory posts on new technologies in the AI field
138 implied HN points 07 Aug 23
  1. Auto-GPT is an attempt at making GPT-4 fully autonomous by giving it the power to make its own decisions.
  2. The core components of Auto-GPT's architecture include initializing the agent, prompting actions, executing actions, embedding information, and saving embeddings to a vector database.
  3. The cyclical process of Auto-GPT continues until it reaches its goal or is interrupted, using a structured system to guide GPT-4 through autonomous decision-making.
2 HN points 12 Dec 23
  1. BERTopic is a versatile topic modeling framework that allows for customization and flexibility in creating topic models for various use cases.
  2. Version 0.16 of BERTopic introduces features like Zero-Shot Topic Modeling, Model Merging, and increased support for Large Language Models (LLMs).
  3. Zero-Shot Topic Modeling helps to uncover pre-defined topics in large amounts of documents, Model Merging allows combining multiple topic models, and LLM support in v0.16 brings new techniques for working with Large Language Models.