Jonathan Frankle: From Lottery Tickets to LLMs

Jonathan Frankle: From Lottery Tickets to LLMs

Author: Daniel Bashir October 26, 2023 Duration: 1:08:22
The Gradient: Perspectives on AI
TechnologyScience

In episode 96 of The Gradient Podcast, Daniel Bashir speaks to Jonathan Frankle.

Jonathan is the Chief Scientist at MosaicML and (as of release). Jonathan completed his PhD at MIT, where he investigated the properties of sparse neural networks that allow them to train effectively through his lottery ticket hypothesis. He also spends a portion of his time working on technology policy, and currently works with the OECD to implement the AI principles he helped develop in 2019.

Have suggestions for future podcast guests (or other feedback)? Let us know here or reach us at editor@thegradient.pub

Subscribe to The Gradient Podcast:  Apple Podcasts  | Spotify | Pocket Casts | RSSFollow The Gradient on Twitter

Outline:

* (00:00) Intro

* (02:35) Jonathan’s background and work

* (04:25) Origins of the Lottery Ticket Hypothesis

* (06:00) Jonathan’s empiricism and approach to science

* (08:25) More Karl Popper discourse + hot takes

* (09:45) Walkthrough of the Lottery Ticket Hypothesis

* (12:00) Issues with the Lottery Ticket Hypothesis as a statement

* (12:30) Jonathan’s advice for PhD students, on asking good questions

* (15:55) Strengths and Promise of the Lottery Ticket Hypothesis

* (18:55) More Lottery Ticket Hypothesis Papers

* (19:10) Comparing Rewinding and Fine-tuning

* (23:00) Care in making experimental choices

* (25:05) Linear Mode Connectivity and the Lottery Ticket Hypothesis

* (27:50) On what is being measured and how

* (28:50) “The outcome of optimization is determined to a linearly connected region”

* (31:15) On good metrics

* (32:54) On the Predictability of Pruning Across Scales — scaling laws for pruning

* (34:40) The paper’s takeaway

* (38:45) Pruning Neural Networks at Initialization — on a scientific disagreement

* (45:00) On making takedown papers useful

* (46:15) On what can be known early in training

* (49:15) Jonathan’s perspective on important research questions today

* (54:40) MosaicML

* (55:19) How Mosaic got started

* (56:17) Mosaic highlights

* (57:33) Customer stories

* (1:00:30) Jonathan’s work and perspectives on AI policy

* (1:05:45) The key question: what we want

* (1:07:35) Outro

Links:

* Jonathan’s homepage and Twitter

* Papers

* The Lottery Ticket Hypothesis and follow-up work

* Comparing Rewinding and Fine-tuning in Neural Network Pruning

* Linear Mode Connectivity and the LTH

* On the Predictability of Pruning Across Scales

* Pruning Neural Networks at Initialization: Why Are We Missing The Mark?

* Desirable Inefficiency



Get full access to The Gradient at thegradientpub.substack.com/subscribe

Hosted by Daniel Bashir, The Gradient: Perspectives on AI moves beyond surface-level headlines to explore the intricate machinery and human ideas shaping artificial intelligence. Each episode is built on a foundation of deep research, leading to conversations that are both technically substantive and broadly accessible. You'll hear from researchers, engineers, and philosophers who are actively building and critiquing our technological future, discussing not just how AI systems work, but the larger implications of their integration into society. This isn't about speculative hype; it's a grounded examination of real progress, persistent challenges, and ethical considerations from those on the front lines. The discussions peel back layers on topics like model architecture, policy, and the fundamental science behind the algorithms becoming part of our daily lives. For anyone curious about the substance behind the buzz-whether you have a technical background or are simply keen to understand a defining technology of our age-this podcast offers a crucial and thoughtful resource. Tune in for a consistently detailed and nuanced take that treats artificial intelligence with the complexity it deserves.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Official website RSS
spotify
The Gradient: Perspectives on AI
Podcast Episodes
Andrew Lee: How AI will Shape the Future of Email [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:03:40
In episode 118 of The Gradient Podcast, Daniel Bashir speaks to Andrew Lee.Andrew is co-founder and CEO of Shortwave, a company dedicated to building a better product experience for email, particularly by leveraging AI.…
Joss Fong: Videomaking, AI, and Science Communication [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:23:59
Episode 117“You get more of what you engage with. Everyone who complains about coverage should understand that every click, every quote tweet, every argument is registered by these publications as engagement. If what you…
Kate Park: Data Engines for Vision and Language [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 41:34
In episode 116 of The Gradient Podcast, Daniel Bashir speaks to Kate Park. Kate is the Director of Product at Scale AI. Prior to joining Scale, Kate worked on Tesla Autopilot as the AI team’s first and lead product manag…
Ben Wellington: ML for Finance and Storytelling through Data [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:07:40
In episode 115 of The Gradient Podcast, Daniel Bashir speaks to Ben Wellington.Ben is the Deputy Head of Feature Forecasting at Two Sigma, a financial sciences company. Ben has been at Two Sigma for more than 15 years, a…
Venkatesh Rao: Protocols, Intelligence, and Scaling [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:18:35
“There is this move from generality in a relative sense of ‘we are not as specialized as insects’ to generality in the sense of omnipotent, omniscient, godlike capabilities. And I think there's something very dangerous t…
Sasha Rush: Building Better NLP Systems [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 54:03
In episode 113 of The Gradient Podcast, Daniel Bashir speaks to Professor Sasha Rush.Professor Rush is an Associate Professor at Cornell University and a Researcher at HuggingFace. His research aims to develop natural la…
Nicholas Thompson: AI and Journalism [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 59:43
In episode 111 of The Gradient Podcast, Daniel Bashir speaks to Nicholas Thompson.Nicholas is the CEO of The Atlantic. Previously, he served as editor-in-chief of Wired and editor of Newyorker.com. Nick also cofounded At…
Russ Maschmeyer: Spatial Commerce and AI in Retail [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 55:41
In episode 109 of The Gradient Podcast, Daniel Bashir speaks to Russ Maschmeyer.Russ is the Product Lead for AI and Spatial Commerce at Shopify. At Shopify, he leads a team that looks at how AI can better empower entrepr…

«12345678...10»