Karan from Nous, a distributed collective of LLM researchers, discusses the origins of the organization and the success of their data synthesis techniques, particularly with their popular Hermes family of models. They dive into the strategies for fine-tuning models and explain why data synthesis is so effective in machine learning.
Read more
AI Summary
Highlights
AI Chapters
Episode notes
auto_awesome
Podcast summary created with Snipd AI
Quick takeaways
The podcast discusses the organic growth and collaboration that led to the creation of the Nous research collective, highlighting the importance of specialization and cross communication among its members.
The episode explores advancements in fine-tuning models, including instruction tuning, model merging, and the use of rewards models, with a focus on enhancing control, robustness, and fidelity.
Deep dives
Organic Growth and Collaboration
The podcast episode dives into the organic growth and collaboration that led to the creation of the news research collective. It started with a small group of individuals experimenting with open source language models, and as their work gained attention and popularity, more people joined the collective. They established different channels and categories for collaboration, with a focus on data synthesis, training, and agent projects. The collective encourages specialization and cross communication to leverage the diverse skills and expertise of its members.
Advancements in Fine-tuning Techniques
The episode highlights several advancements and techniques in fine-tuning models. These include instruction tuning, which involves creating novel methods for formatting and compressing data; model merging, where multiple models are combined to achieve better results; and the use of rewards models to influence the behavior and biases of models. The collective also explores sampling methods and the development of alternative paradigms for token selection. The goal is to enhance the control, robustness, and fidelity of models.
Focus on Locality and Offline Capabilities
Localization and offline capabilities are emphasized by the news research collective. They believe in empowering users to run models locally and take control over their AI systems. This aligns with their vision of decentralization and enabling access to language models for everyone. The collective seeks to develop tools and research that make models more effective and accessible, without compromising the open-source nature of their work. They aim to create revenue through services that support and enhance the entire open-source community.
Seeding a Promising Future
The podcast episode concludes by discussing the recent $5.2 million seed financing round that news research secured. While it marks a transition to a corporation, the collective remains committed to its open-source ethos and the overall sentiment of the AI community. They intend to use the funding to further their research, develop tools, and provide services that will benefit the open-source community. Their focus is on promoting localization, offline capabilities, and advancing fine-tuning techniques. The collective aims to push the boundaries of language models and contribute to the AI landscape.
Nous Research has been pumping out some of the best open access LLMs using SOTA data synthesis techniques. Their Hermes family of models is incredibly popular! In this episode, Karan from Nous talks about the origins of Nous as a distributed collective of LLM researchers. We also get into fine-tuning strategies and why data synthesis works so well.
Changelog++ members save 2 minutes on this episode because they made the ads disappear. Join today!
Sponsors:
Read Write Own – Read, Write, Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet—a new book from entrepreneur and investor Chris Dixon—explores one possible solution to the internet’s authenticity problem: Blockchains. From AI that tracks its source material to generative programs that compensate—rather than cannibalize—creators. It’s a call to action for a more open, transparent, and democratic internet. One that opens the black box of AI, tracks the origins we see online, and much more. Order your copy of Read, Write, Own today at readwriteown.com
Fly.io – The home of Changelog.com — Deploy your apps and databases close to your users. In minutes you can run your Ruby, Go, Node, Deno, Python, or Elixir app (and databases!) all over the world. No ops required. Learn more at fly.io/changelog and check out the speedrun in their docs.