How do you speed up deep learning models? (2024)

Key takeaways from this article

• Streamline the model:

  Reducing the size of your deep learning models by pruning unnecessary parameters, layers, or neurons helps increase speed without a drastic loss in performance. It's like carrying a lighter backpack to run faster!

• Parallel processing:

  Use parallel computation strategies like distributed training to tackle different parts of your data or model at once. This is akin to having multiple chefs in the kitchen, each cooking a dish simultaneously, speeding up meal prep.

This summary is powered by AI and these experts

• Asad K🚀 Fintech Enthusiast | Digital…
• Madhu Kanukula AI Engineering Lead @ IBM | Staff Data…

• Asad K🚀 Fintech Enthusiast | Digital Transformation | Cybersecurity | Identity Verification | Threat Intelligence | Accura Scan

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  I will try to explain this in a layman's term:Imagine having a sizable, intelligent machine that can perform a variety of tasks using words, such as determining a person's mood or providing answers to queries. However, this device is also incredibly bulky and slow, making it challenging to use on your phone or laptop. You can utilize a different, quicker, smaller machine that can learn from the larger machine to resolve this issue. By doing so, you can maintain the big machine's intelligence while making the smaller machine simpler to operate.Use fewer parameters, layers, or neurons. Pruning, quantization, and distillation are among strategies for reducing model size.

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• Shubham Saboo LinkedIn Top Voice | AI Product Management at Tenstorrent | 3x Author of AI Books | Microsoft MVP | Community of 100k+ AI Developers

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  Think of reducing model size like packing a suitcase for a trip. You can't take everything, so you prioritize essentials to make the bag lighter. Pruning, quantization, and distillation are like your packing techniques—they help you keep what's necessary while cutting down on bulk. Just remember, leaving out too much may affect your trip, or in this case, your model's performance. So, it's all about finding that sweet spot!

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• Sahir Maharaj Data Scientist | Bring me data, I will give you insights | Top 1% Power BI Super User | 500+ solutions delivered | AI Engineer

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  In my experience as a data scientist, reducing model size frequently goes hand in hand with techniques like knowledge distillation, in which a smaller student model is trained to emulate the performance of a larger teacher model, resulting in faster inference times while maintaining prediction quality.

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• Dr. Priyanka Singh Ph.D. Engineering Manager - AI @ Universal AI 🧠 Linkedin Top Voice 🎙️ Generative AI Author 📖 Technical Reviewer @Packt 🤖 Building Better AI for Tomorrow 🌈

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  One of the most effective ways is to use hardware accelerators such as GPUs, TPUs, or FPGAs. These accelerators can perform matrix operations much faster than CPUs, commonly used in traditional computing. Another way is to optimize the model architecture by reducing the number of layers or parameters, using smaller batch sizes, or implementing pruning techniques. Additionally, data augmentation techniques such as rotation, flipping, or scaling can be used to increase the size of the training dataset and improve model accuracy. Finally, using pre-trained models or transfer learning can also speed up the training process by leveraging the knowledge learned from other models.

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  For some LLMs, distillation can outperform pruning or quantization because fine-tuning can "reintroduce" pruned weights, while quantization risks nullifying weights critical to inference. Granted, pruning methods span from weight-level ones to structured ones like attention-head pruning, which nullifies entire units based on aggregate sig. Quantization methods, like post-training quant, reduce weight precision post-hoc, while quant-aware training integrates it into the training loop for loss-robustness. But distillation trains a definitively compact "student" model to emulate the larger "teacher" model, using e.g. soft-target distillation for class distro, attn distillation for attn patterns, or intermediate-layer methods for hierarchicals.

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  Powerful hardware can boost the speed of deep learning models. Dedicated hardware like GPUs, TPUs, or cloud services are used for parallel processing, which results in sped-up model speed.🔎 The usage and selection of faster hardware are mainly dependent on the project requirements. The more budget you will allocate, the more resources you can take. But In terms of scalability cloud services are really helpful.✅I use GPUs to execute my deep learning projects. Its cost is a bit expensive but it's a single-time cost. If you are using cloud services, you need to pay monthly or yearly costs but cloud services also offer many deployment options, while on your local machine, you will need to deploy everything from scratch and on your own.

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• Sahir Maharaj Data Scientist | Bring me data, I will give you insights | Top 1% Power BI Super User | 500+ solutions delivered | AI Engineer

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  Investing in faster hardware not only accelerates model training but also enables real-time applications, particularly in sectors where immediate decision-making is critical, such as autonomous driving or medical imaging.

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• Mirza Riyasat Ali Computer Vision Engineer | Machine Learning | Image Processing | Electrical Engineer | MicroControllers | Embedded Systems

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  Let's break down "Hardware Acceleration" in a simpler way:"Hardware acceleration is like a super chef. Imagine your computer as a chef in a kitchen trying to chop lots of veggies. Using a regular knife (like a standard computer processor) takes a long time.Now, picture the chef using a super-fast chopping machine (similar to a GPU or TPU). This machine is designed for the task and chops veggies much faster.In the computer world, hardware acceleration means using specialized, faster equipment (like this chopping machine) for specific tasks, such as deep learning calculations. It's like having a super chef in the kitchen to speed up your cooking!"

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  Imagine upgrading from a rowboat to a speedboat. Both can navigate the waters, but the speedboat does it with remarkable swiftness. In the realm of deep learning, GPUs and TPUs are our speedboats, designed to cruise through computations at breakneck speeds. Yet, as with any powerful vessel, there are costs—both literal and figurative. While the allure of speed is tempting, it's essential to weigh the benefits against factors like expense and energy consumption.Tip: Before investing in high-end hardware, evaluate your project's needs. Sometimes, optimising your code or using cloud-based solutions can offer significant speed boosts without the hefty price tag of top-tier equipment.

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• Viswanatha Allugunti, PhD Linkedin Top Voice, Digital Innovation Thought Leader - AI | ML | UX | IEEE Brand Ambassador | Forbes Technology Council Member | UN Youth Assembly Delegate | Keynote Speaker | Author | Indian Achievers' Award 2021

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  Navigating AI's expansive landscape, I've consistently observed that hardware is the silent bedrock of model efficiency. While software optimizations hold value, the right hardware can drastically reduce iteration cycles. I've leveraged GPUs for their prowess in parallel processing, often making them indispensable for large-scale training. TPUs, with their matrix multiplication specialization, have provided an edge in specific scenarios. But it's not one-size-fits-all. Often, cloud-based solutions offered elasticity, scaling as per demand. Key takeaway? Invest thoughtfully in hardware. It’s not about having the best; it’s about having the right fit for the task.

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  Deep learning models are required to be fine-tuned by doing multiple experiments, which means we need to train the model several times. So, we can use efficient tools/frameworks like GPUs, Distributed parallel training, distributed data-parallel, fully sharded data-parallel, and Remote Procedure Call (RPC) distributed training, etc. If we are able to use those concepts and frameworks effectively we can speed up the model training.

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• Sahir Maharaj Data Scientist | Bring me data, I will give you insights | Top 1% Power BI Super User | 500+ solutions delivered | AI Engineer

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  When parallelizing computation, you must also consider the communication overhead between devices. For example, in distributed training, if devices spend too much time communicating gradients or weights, the speedup gains can be negated.

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  Think of a symphony orchestra. Each musician plays a different instrument, but when they perform in harmony, the result is a beautiful, cohesive piece of music. In deep learning, parallelizing computation is akin to orchestrating multiple devices to work in tandem. By dividing tasks, we ensure each 'musician' plays its part, leading to a faster and more harmonious performance. However, like an orchestra conductor ensuring every instrument is in sync, managing parallel computation requires careful coordination.Tip: Dive into frameworks like TensorFlow or PyTorch, which offer built-in tools for parallelisation. These tools can help distribute tasks efficiently across multiple GPUs, ensuring your 'orchestra' performs at its best.

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  Speeding up deep learning models, particularly through parallelized computation during inference, is essential for real-time applications and efficient resource utilization. One effective approach involves leveraging hardware accelerators like GPUs or TPUs, which are designed for parallel processing. By optimizing model deployment frameworks to harness these accelerators efficiently, you can distribute inference tasks across multiple cores or devices simultaneously. Additionally, techniques like model quantization and pruning reduce computational complexity without sacrificing accuracy. Furthermore, deploying models on edge devices can minimize latency by processing data locally, reducing the need for data transfer over networks.

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• Viswanatha Allugunti, PhD Linkedin Top Voice, Digital Innovation Thought Leader - AI | ML | UX | IEEE Brand Ambassador | Forbes Technology Council Member | UN Youth Assembly Delegate | Keynote Speaker | Author | Indian Achievers' Award 2021

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  In the AI frontier, time is often a luxury. I've repeatedly found parallelism to be a key accelerator, allowing multiple computations to run in tandem. While data parallelism, distributing data across devices, has been a mainstay for large datasets, I've seen notable speed-ups with model parallelism, especially with colossal models that surpass memory limitations. Pipeline parallelism, segmenting models into stages run on different devices, also offers intriguing potential. Yet, the caveat: parallelism isn't merely about speed but managing intricacies. From ensuring synchronized updates to aptly distributing data loads, the balance is delicate but paramount.

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  Consider techniques like layer-wise adaptive moments for batch training, or regularizing adam with weight decay; they can sometimes give faster convergence for fine-tuning transformers with larger parameter counts. Also, activations like GELU—standard in many "generation II" transformer implementations—can likewise aid in preventing vanishing gradient issues and help boost efficiency. Of course, don't overlook the dual benefits of layer norming: it not only stabilizes deeper transformer layers, but also acts as an implicit regularizer. Computationally, ensure that self-attention is optimally parallelized across TPU cores, and reduce latency by nixing unnecessary data transfers between embedding and position encodings.

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• Sahir Maharaj Data Scientist | Bring me data, I will give you insights | Top 1% Power BI Super User | 500+ solutions delivered | AI Engineer

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  Not only are efficient algorithms those that accelerate training, but also those that effectively represent the underlying data distribution. Employing methods like batch normalization can both stabilize training and possibly speed up convergence.

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• Kedar Gaikwad Computer Vision Researcher @ ASU | AI engineer with 4+ years of experience | MS in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics

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  See Also

  8 Ways to Improve Accuracy of Machine Learning Models (Updated 2024)
  Many times there are operations/layers not supported by an accelerated compute device always go through such lists so that you can avoid data being sent between TPU and CPU.

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  Think of an executive who relies too much on past experiences, risking misjudgments in new situations. Similarly, in AI, a model can over-rely on its training data, making errors on new data—a problem called 'overfitting'. Regularization techniques in AI are like checks and balances for executives, ensuring models don't become too fixed on past patterns and remain adaptable to new information.

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  Picture a chef selecting the perfect knife for a specific task. A bread knife might be perfect for slicing a loaf, but it's not the best choice for dicing vegetables. Similarly, in deep learning, choosing the right algorithm is crucial. The efficiency and effectiveness of our models hinge on the algorithms we employ. While some might speed up training, others enhance the model's robustness. But, like a chef knowing when to switch knives, we must discern which algorithm suits our specific needs.Tip: Regularly review the latest research and advancements in optimisation methods and activation functions. The AI field is ever-evolving, and today's cutting-edge algorithm might be tomorrow's standard tool.

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• Sahir Maharaj Data Scientist | Bring me data, I will give you insights | Top 1% Power BI Super User | 500+ solutions delivered | AI Engineer

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  Pre-trained models provide benefits beyond just speed. In particular, when the amount of labeled data for a particular task is constrained, they capture a significant amount of prior knowledge, allowing models to generalize more effectively.

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  Pretrained models play an important role in speeding up deep learning models. These models are trained on large datasets i.e. COCO, OpenImages, etc.✅These days professionals use such models for development, research, fine-tuning the algorithms on their own data, and meta-learning.🔎Because pretrained models build on large datasets doesn't mean that they can help in every use case. There are many use cases where model building from scratch is recommended.

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  For certain pretrained LLMs, fine-tuning is an important but intricate process because the expansive parameter sets encode knowledge across so many different scales. It can be helpful to try techniques like adaptive learning rates, gradient clipping, etc. to ensure the pretrained weights are altered judiciously, i.e. minimizing the risk of catastrophic forgetting. Depending on the nuances of the tasks and the architecture/model, a more modular fine-tuning approach can be helpful, where only specific transformer blocks or attention heads are updated, preserving the broader linguistic knowledge or competencies in the pertained model.

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• Derrick Mwiti Machine Learning Professional | Google D.E Machine Learning

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  When fine-tuning using pretrained models it's very important to use models that have already been optimized via pruning and quantization. These models are smaller and hence the training process will be faster compared to training using a dense model.

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  if your model is "different" and thus you are unable to use pre-trained model(s), then train your first model, deploy it and use it as a transition model for the others. just keep building on top of it for instance, models in NLP would require certain linguistics category, so you can have a base model for that, and train the rest using this pre-trained model.

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• Donato Riccio AI/ML Engineer @ The Motley Fool

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  I recommend implementing MLOps practices to systematically track your experiments, model versions, and performance over time. This will help you monitor model drift, reproduce previous results, and continuously improve your models. Consider using an experiment tracking tool like MLflow, Weights & Biases, or Comet ML to log training metrics, model artifacts, and code versions for each experiment run. This will enable you to compare performance across experiments and production models in a reproducible way.

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  Monitoring and evaluating deep learning models is crucial for optimal performance. Regular analysis can identify issues or bottlenecks that hamper efficiency, while continuous optimization can further enhance results. However, there's a trade-off between the benefits of rigorous evaluation and the overhead it introduces. While tools such as logging, profiling, and benchmarking are essential, it's equally important to gauge the frequency and depth of their application to maintain a swift development cycle. Regular check-ins and strategic adjustments are key to ensuring models perform at their peak.

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• Mohamed Azharudeen Data Scientist @ 🚀 | Building Papert.in | Published 2 Research Papers | Open-Sourced 400K+ Rows of Data | Articulating Innovations Through Technical Writing

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  Actually, I disagree with the notion that monitoring is just about speed optimization. It's crucial for understanding model drift over time. For instance, I've seen models perform well initially but degrade as data evolves. Regular evaluations can catch such issues early on.

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• Murat Taskiner AI pioneer, MBA, Founder driving new business growth with marketing expertise

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  Absolutely, continuous monitoring and evaluation are the unsung heroes of efficient deep learning. It's akin to tuning a high-performance engine; you need to keep an eye on its performance to ensure it's running at its best. While it demands resources, the insights gained are invaluable. Logging, profiling, and benchmarking are the tools in your arsenal. They help spot bottlenecks, identify areas for optimization, and ultimately keep your deep learning models racing ahead. #DeepLearning #Optimization

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• Konstantin Sizov Inventor, AI, Agile, Founder @ Drive Square, Inc. | D2 Engineering | Dux.eco

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  Just like classic, well-established machine learning techniques, deep learning models can significantly benefit from thorough data cleaning. Just because your live data stream contains noise, it doesn't mean you should train your models on that noise. As an age-old data science saying goes: "Data scientists spend 80% of their time cleaning the data…" Training deep learning models is no exception. Injecting a substantial amount of human intelligence into the data cleaning process can greatly expedite the deep learning models.

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• Dr. Shweta Agrawal (IIST) Professor CSE, HOD AI/ ML, DL, IoT, GenAI, Data Science, NET, GATE , Author, Editor, speaker, content writer, Women in Data Science(Wids) Indore Brand Ambassador, Patents, publications, machine learning projects

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  The very important aspect to prepare an effective deep learning model is to have relevant data with precise features. Different feature selection methods can be used to optimize model parameters.

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  Most of the solutions seem to be from the data science perspective and talk about relevant things especially to training. But in my experience with real world applications it’s the inferencing that needs speed the most, as training will always depend on various subjective factors. One of the most effective ways I found to increase inference speed was, irrespective your model accuracy, first thing is try to improve and utilise its ‘hardness’ (a term that calculates the model’s difficulty to predict hard samples). Once you have a suitably hard model, you can try pruning, distillation or mimicking it with smaller models combined with batching to increase the speed of your inferencing

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  As we continue to push the boundaries of deep learning, it’s essential to address a concern that often goes unnoticed: the significant carbon footprint generated by training machine learning models. AI at large has staggering CO2 emissions, and all that computational effort to run deep learning models requires tremendous energy requirements to cool data centers. While speeding up deep learning models might, at surface level, seem like a play on efficiency, this is also better for the planet and energy consumption. It’s imperative that we strive for not only technological advancement but also eco-conscious innovation to ensure a sustainable future.

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• Evgeny Adishchev Giving birth to ML products

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  Another class of methods is used after the (large and slow) model is trained: quantification, pruning and distillation. Quantification is switching to float32 or float16 instead of float64. Check the target metrics and chances are they still are good.Pruning is a special method of selecting only the most important synapses - links between neurons. To do it you run your dataset through the model and select neurons that get nonzero values. After that you can remove the less used (reduce corresponding matrix rows and columns) and get the pruned model.Distillation is a method of training small model to mimic behavior of a large one. A small model (student) is trained using the large one (teacher). A model is trained with a model, not dataset

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