Train GPT-2 in Just 90 Minutes for an Affordable $20

If you’ve ever been curious about training your own AI models, now is your chance! Andrej Karpathy has made it easier than ever to reproduce the 124 million parameter GPT-2 model in a remarkably short time frame – just 90 minutes! And the best part? It can be done for approximately $20 using his optimized code and a rental cloud GPU setup.

Originally unveiled by OpenAI in 2019, the GPT-2 series continues to intrigue AI enthusiasts and developers alike. This small yet powerful model has just been brought back into the spotlight thanks to Karpathy’s demonstration, which leverages an 8x A100 80GB GPU cloud instance.

Key Highlights:

• Rapid Reproduction: Successfully replicated the 124 million parameter GPT-2 model in a brisk 90 minutes.
• Affordable Training: The entire process costs about $20 through an efficient cloud GPU rental.
• Performance Efficiency: Achieved up to 60% utilization of peak model FLOPS during training.
• Extensive Dataset: Utilized the FineWeb dataset, comprising an impressive 10 billion tokens of web data.
• Exceeding Expectations: The outcome surpassed OpenAI’s own released 124M checkpoint in performance.
• Scaling Up: Karpathy also managed to reproduce the 350M model in a longer span of 14 hours for a cost of around $200.
• Longer Training for Larger Models: For those interested in the full 1558 million parameter model, expect a week-long commitment and a budget of around $2,500.

The resources, including the complete training script and visualizations, are available on Karpathy’s GitHub page, offering a great opportunity for those keen on diving into the world of AI training and model development.

For further exploration, you can check out the LLM.c/discussions/481″>GitHub Source Here.

Embrace the evolution of AI technology and consider taking your first step towards training your own models today!