about
Communication-Efficient Language Model Training Scales Reliably and Robustly (arxiv.org)
1 point by PaulHoule on Mar 25, 2025 | hide | past | pdf | discuss on HN

In plain words: Instead of sharing updates every step, DiLoCo trains separate copies that sync only occasionally, cutting network traffic. Testing many model sizes showed its quality grows predictably and, when tuned, beats standard frequent-sync training even at small sizes.

Abstract · Communication-Efficient Language Model Training Scales Reliably and Robustly: Scaling Laws for DiLoCo

As we scale to more massive machine learning models, the frequent synchronization demands inherent in data-parallel approaches create significant slowdowns, posing a critical challenge to further scaling. Recent work develops an approach (DiLoCo) that relaxes synchronization demands without compromising model quality. However, these works do not carefully analyze how DiLoCo's behavior changes with model size. In this work, we study the scaling law behavior of DiLoCo when training LLMs under a fixed compute budget. We focus on how algorithmic factors, including number of model replicas, hyperparameters, and token budget affect training in ways that can be accurately predicted via scaling laws. We find that DiLoCo scales both predictably and robustly with model size. When well-tuned, DiLoCo scales better than data-parallel training with model size, and can outperform data-parallel training even at small model sizes. Our results showcase a more general set of benefits of DiLoCo than previously documented, including increased optimal batch sizes, improved downstream generalization with scale, and improved evaluation loss for a fixed token budget.

Zachary Charles, Gabriel Teston, Lucio Dery, Keith Rush, Nova Fallen, Zachary Garrett, Arthur Szlam, Arthur Douillard
arXiv:2503.09799 · cs.LG, cs.CL, cs.DC · submitted Mar 12, 2025
abstract · pdf · html

add comment on HN
Also discussed: Mar 2025 (2 points, 0 comments)