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Pythia: A Suite for Analyzing Large Language Models Across Training and Scaling (arxiv.org)
68 points by iyaja on Apr 5, 2023 | hide | past | pdf | 7 comments on HN

In plain words: Sixteen language models from 70M to 12B trained on identical public data in identical order, with 154 saved snapshots each to watch learning happen. This fixed setup revealed patterns in memorization, how word frequency shapes answers from a few examples, and gender bias reduction.

Abstract

How do large language models (LLMs) develop and evolve over the course of training? How do these patterns change as models scale? To answer these questions, we introduce \textit{Pythia}, a suite of 16 LLMs all trained on public data seen in the exact same order and ranging in size from 70M to 12B parameters. We provide public access to 154 checkpoints for each one of the 16 models, alongside tools to download and reconstruct their exact training dataloaders for further study. We intend \textit{Pythia} to facilitate research in many areas, and we present several case studies including novel results in memorization, term frequency effects on few-shot performance, and reducing gender bias. We demonstrate that this highly controlled setup can be used to yield novel insights toward LLMs and their training dynamics. Trained models, analysis code, training code, and training data can be found at \url{https://github.com/EleutherAI/pythia}.

Stella Biderman, Hailey Schoelkopf, Quentin Anthony, Herbie Bradley, Kyle O'Brien, Eric Hallahan, Mohammad Aflah Khan, Shivanshu Purohit, USVSN Sai Prashanth, Edward Raff, Aviya Skowron, Lintang Sutawika, et al.
arXiv:2304.01373 · cs.CL · submitted Apr 3, 2023 · updated May 31, 2023
abstract · pdf · html · Code at https://github.com/EleutherAI/pythia

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Also pythia: https://www.pythia.org/

A high energy physics simulation library

I asked ChatGPT what a top quark can decay into. Among other things it suggested a top quark could decay into a photon. ChatGPT seems not to have learned about baryon number conservation...

On a more serious note, Pythia has been around for 40 years... surely they could have picked a better name...

I asked ChatGPT (GPT-4) model about the top quark decay channels and it was mostly correct about top decay to W and b quark. It then started listing possibilities of further W decays which were mostly correct.

On your same serious note, particle physicists are the worst in naming things, let's not forget that people came up with a very unique name of "ROOT".

I'm ok with this as long as it's not the n-th software project called Spark.
I've been happily using Pythia in Acronymy Assistant: https://github.com/dwrensha/acronymy-assistant

It's quite convenient to have a continuous range of model sizes. Usually I want "the largest model that fits on my GPU", but sometimes I want to trade between quality and performance, and Pythia makes that easy.

No, the title is linked. The title refers to Pythia by EleutherAI for evaluating LLMs.

You linked something that is a framework for multimodal models by facebook.