797: Deep Learning Classics and Trends, with Dr. Rosanne Liu
Jul 2, 2024
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Dr. Rosanne Liu, Research Scientist at Google DeepMind, shares her journey in democratizing AI research and her work on intrinsic dimensions in deep learning. They discuss character-aware text encoding, curiosity-driven vs. goal-driven research, and the importance of diversity in the ML community.
Dr. Liu pioneered intrinsic dimension study in deep learning, inspiring LoRA approach for LLM fine-tuning.
Curiosity-driven and goal-driven ML research balance is crucial for fostering innovation.
Character-aware text encoding improves spelling accuracy in generative models, enhancing image classification performance.
Deep dives
ML Collective - Supporting ML Researchers
The ML Collective, a nonprofit organization led by Dr. Roseanne Liu, provides global ML research training and mentorship. Founded to address frustrations in traditional research training, it offers support to researchers navigating academia. With a focus on promoting diversity and inclusion in the ML community, ML Collective supports individual research interests while fostering a collaborative research environment.
Deep Learning Classics and Trends Reading Group
A key initiative by the ML Collective is the Deep Learning Classics and Trends Reading Group. This group explores deep learning topics beyond mainstream trends, emphasizing a balanced coverage of popular and lesser-known research. By featuring papers with less publicity and showcasing discussions led by junior authors, the group provides a platform for researchers to enhance their public speaking skills and share diverse perspectives.
Intrinsic Dimension and Parameter-Efficient Fine-Tuning
Dr. Roseanne Liu's research on intrinsic dimension highlighted the measurement of task difficulty in conjunction with neural network representations. This work inspired the concept of the LoRa approach to efficiently fine-tune large language models (LLMs) by reducing the dimension of training subspaces. The significance of understanding intrinsic dimensions lies in providing a scientific measure of task difficulty based on the combined impact of data sets and network architectures.
Balancing Curiosity-Driven and Goal-Driven Research
The balance between curiosity-driven and goal-driven research is essential in the ML field. While goal-driven research aligns with defined metrics and benchmarks, curiosity-driven research allows researchers to explore unique perspectives and foster intellectual curiosity. By encouraging a blend of both approaches, researchers can innovate beyond conventional goals and contribute to the diverse landscape of ML research.
Innovative Machie Learning Concepts by Unity Developer Tori Nabe
Unity developer Tori Nabe created a reverse Turing test where characters in a train car are powered by different LLMs, leading to distinct dialogues. Each character, including Cleopatra, Aristotle, Leonardo da Vinci, and Genghis Khan, interacts within this experiment involving various language models. Through these interactions, the LLMs showcase unique abilities, with Aristotle attempting to identify the human among the characters by asking insightful questions, contrasting with Genghis Khan's more simplistic responses, resulting in successful identification by the majority of LLMs.
Advancements in Zero-Shot Image Classification through Custom Prompts
The episode delves into the challenges faced in image generation tasks, particularly regarding hand representations and spelling accuracy. Research on character-aware text encoding found that models that attend to individual characters during encoding produce more accurate results, improving spelling in generative models. The integration of LLMs to expand class descriptions led to enhanced zero-shot image classification accuracy, showcasing the ability to prompt models effectively for improved performance.
Dr. Rosanne Liu, Research Scientist at Google DeepMind and co-founder of the ML Collective, shares her journey and the mission to democratize AI research. She explains her pioneering work on intrinsic dimensions in deep learning and the advantages of curiosity-driven research. Jon and Dr. Liu also explore the complexities of understanding powerful AI models, the specifics of character-aware text encoding, and the significant impact of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the ML community. With publications in NeurIPS, ICLR, ICML, and Science, Dr. Liu offers her expertise and vision for the future of machine learning.
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In this episode you will learn:
• How the ML Collective came about [03:31]
• The concept of a failure CV [16:12]
• ML Collective research topics [19:03]
• How Dr. Liu's work on the “intrinsic dimension” of deep learning models inspired the now-standard LoRA approach to fine-tuning LLMs [21:28]
• The pros and cons of curiosity-driven vs. goal-driven ML research [29:08]
• Discussion on Dr. Liu's research and papers [33:17]
• Character-aware vs. character-blind text encoding [54:59]
• The positive impacts of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the ML community [57:51]