Gideon Mendels, CEO and co-founder of Comet, dives into the intricate world of testing and evaluating LLMs. He discusses the hybrid approach required for these applications, merging machine learning with software engineering best practices. Topics include innovative methods for evaluating LLMs beyond traditional metrics, the challenge of unit testing with deterministic assertions, and the importance of experiment tracking in ensuring reproducibility. Gideon also highlights the role of user interaction analysis in enhancing LLM applications' performance.
Read more
AI Summary
AI Chapters
Episode notes
auto_awesome
Podcast summary created with Snipd AI
Quick takeaways
Effective evaluation metrics for LLMs require a shift from traditional accuracy-focused measures to task-specific metrics tailored for nuanced outputs.
Human labeling plays a critical role in refining LLM performance, though it can be costly, highlighting the necessity for quality labeled datasets.
The collaboration between software engineering and data science is essential for managing LLM applications, ensuring robust and adaptable development in production environments.
Deep dives
The Shift from Traditional ML to Evaluation in LLMs
Evaluation metrics for machine learning models, particularly Large Language Models (LLMs), differ significantly from traditional metrics. Traditional machine learning typically evaluates models based on accuracy and F1 scores, which are straightforward to compute with labeled datasets. However, in the context of LLMs, metrics like perplexity and various heuristic distances become relevant, as the output may not conform to a strict string format yet still convey the same meaning. Understanding the task-specific nature of evaluation is crucial, as deploying LLMs often introduces unpredictability in their responses, necessitating different evaluation approaches than those used during training.
Human Labeling Challenges and Solutions
Human labeling remains an essential, albeit expensive, method for evaluating the performance of LLM outputs. Companies often resort to labeling parties or external services to provide quality labeled datasets, which are vital for refining prompts and enhancing model performance. The conversation highlights the importance of maintaining a small goal dataset to understand the boundaries of model capabilities; this is especially true in the case of chatbots where understanding user intent is critical. Incorporating human feedback into the evaluation process allows for more accurate reporting of model performance and quick identification of areas requiring improvement.
Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration in AI Development
The synergy between software engineering and data science is pivotal in managing LLM applications. Engineers are encouraged to adopt data science methodologies to better understand the fuzziness inherent in LLM outputs while data scientists should gain familiarity with software engineering concepts for collaborative success. This cross-pollination of skills enables both disciplines to create robust machine-learning models that can better adapt in production environments. The integration of both approaches ensures that teams can conduct experimentation more efficiently and effectively, further advancing AI solutions.
The Importance of Experiment Tracking
Comprehensive experiment tracking plays a vital role in the development and deployment of AI applications, especially for LLMs. With tools like OPIC, users can monitor various configurations and parameters crucial for reproducing results, enhancing collaboration among teams. Insightful data visualization enables teams to slice and dice the output, identifying potential issues quickly and iterating on prompts effectively. By maintaining a structured approach to experiment management, organizations can ensure a higher level of confidence in their AI-driven applications.
Addressing Alerts and Anomalies in LLM Outputs
Incorporating alerts within LLM applications is a challenge due to the non-deterministic nature of their outputs. While traditional alerting systems may notify teams of downtime, distinguishing between acceptable variations in LLM responses and true anomalies can be complex. Introducing metrics that track anomalies in usage patterns—such as sudden spikes in query volumes—can provide actionable insights to developers. Developing effective alerting mechanisms tailored to the evolving landscape of LLMs is crucial to ensure robust application performance and user satisfaction.
Gideon Mendels is the Chief Executive Officer at Comet, the leading solution for managing machine learning workflows.
How to Systematically Test and Evaluate Your LLMs Apps // MLOps Podcast #269 with Gideon Mendels, CEO of Comet.
// Abstract
When building LLM Applications, Developers need to take a hybrid approach from both ML and SW Engineering best practices. They need to define eval metrics and track their entire experimentation to see what is and is not working. They also need to define comprehensive unit tests for their particular use-case so they can confidently check if their LLM App is ready to be deployed.
// Bio
Gideon Mendels is the CEO and co-founder of Comet, the leading solution for managing machine learning workflows from experimentation to production. He is a computer scientist, ML researcher and entrepreneur at his core. Before Comet, Gideon co-founded GroupWize, where they trained and deployed NLP models processing billions of chats. His journey with NLP and Speech Recognition models began at Columbia University and Google where he worked on hate speech and deception detection.
// MLOps Swag/Merch
https://mlops-community.myshopify.com/
// Related Links
Website: https://www.comet.com/site/
All the Hard Stuff with LLMs in Product Development // Phillip Carter // MLOps Podcast #170: https://youtu.be/DZgXln3v85s
Opik by Comet: https://www.comet.com/site/products/opik/
--------------- ✌️Connect With Us ✌️ -------------
Join our slack community: https://go.mlops.community/slack
Follow us on Twitter: @mlopscommunity
Sign up for the next meetup: https://go.mlops.community/register
Catch all episodes, blogs, newsletters, and more: https://mlops.community/
Connect with Demetrios on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dpbrinkm/
Connect with Gideon on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gideon-mendels/
Timestamps:
[00:00] Gideon's preferred coffee
[00:17] Takeaways
[01:50] A huge shout-out to Comet ML for sponsoring this episode!
[02:09] Please like, share, leave a review, and subscribe to our MLOps channels!
[03:30] Evaluation metrics in AI
[06:55] LLM Evaluation in Practice
[10:57] LLM testing methodologies
[16:56] LLM as a judge
[18:53] OPIC track function overview
[20:33] Tracking user response value
[26:32] Exploring AI metrics integration
[29:05] Experiment tracking and LLMs
[34:27] Micro Macro collaboration in AI
[38:20] RAG Pipeline Reproducibility Snapshot
[40:15] Collaborative experiment tracking
[45:29] Feature flags in CI/CD
[48:55] Labeling challenges and solutions
[54:31] LLM output quality alerts
[56:32] Anomaly detection in model outputs
[1:01:07] Wrap up
Get the Snipd podcast app
Unlock the knowledge in podcasts with the podcast player of the future.
AI-powered podcast player
Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features
Discover highlights
Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode
Save any moment
Hear something you like? Tap your headphones to save it with AI-generated key takeaways
Share & Export
Send highlights to Twitter, WhatsApp or export them to Notion, Readwise & more
AI-powered podcast player
Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features
Discover highlights
Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode