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Sparse Llama: Revolutionizing LLMs with 70% Sparsity

Introduction

The advent of Large Language Models (LLMs) has propelled the field of
Artificial Intelligence (AI) into a new era of innovation. These models,
with their ability to understand, generate, and interact with human
language, have opened up new possibilities in machine learning.
However, the vast size and complexity of these models come with a
considerable computational cost, making them less accessible for
widespread use. This is where the concept of sparsity comes into play.

What is Sparsity in Large Language Models?

Sparsity in LLMs is a technique that reduces the number of active

parameters in a model without a substantial loss in performance. It’s akin
to finding the most efficient path through a dense forest; the goal is to
reach the other side using the least amount of effort while still enjoying
the journey. As LLMs grow in size, their demands on computational
resources increase. This not only escalates the cost of training and

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deploying these models but also limits their accessibility to those without
substantial computing power. Sparsity addresses these challenges by
reducing the model’s size and improving inference times, making LLMs
more sustainable and democratized.

Recent advancements in sparsity have been groundbreaking.

Techniques like pruning and sparse pretraining have enabled models to
retain or even surpass their original accuracy while being significantly
smaller and faster. These improvements are transformative, allowing
LLMs to be deployed in environments where it was previously not
feasible. Despite these advancements, challenges remain. Achieving
high levels of sparsity without compromising the model’s ability to
perform complex tasks is a delicate balance. Moreover, the lack of
hardware that can efficiently handle sparse models has been a
bottleneck.

Creators of Sparse Llama

Sparse Llama, a novel AI model developed by Cerebras and Neural

Magic, is at the forefront of tackling these challenges. By integrating
state-of-the-art sparsity techniques and leveraging specialized hardware,
Sparse Llama aims to set a new standard for efficient LLMs. The
development of Sparse Llama is part of the broader narrative of AI
evolution, representing a shift towards more sustainable, accessible, and
powerful AI systems that can drive innovation across various sectors.

The driving force behind Sparse Llama was to create a model that could
deliver the power of LLMs to a wider audience, making them more
accessible and democratized. Cerebras and Neural Magic have
achieved this major milestone in the field of LLMs. Their novel approach
combines state-of-the-art pruning techniques, sparse pretraining, and
purpose-built hardware, unlocking unprecedented levels of sparsity in
LLMs. The motto behind the development of Sparse Llama is to pave the

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way for more efficient training and deployment of LLMs, making them
accessible to a broader range of organizations and industries.

What is Sparse Llama?

Sparse Llama is a groundbreaking approach to Large Language Models

(LLMs) that leverages sparsity to its advantage. It is a foundational
model that has been optimized for sparsity, achieving a significant
reduction in parameters while maintaining full accuracy in performance
for a range of downstream tasks. This unique model is designed to
create accurate, sparse versions of performant LLMs that achieve full
accuracy recovery for fine-tuning tasks.

Key Features of Sparse Llama

● 70% Sparsity: A groundbreaking level of parameter reduction,

setting a new benchmark for LLMs.
● Full Accuracy Recovery: Despite the significant reduction in size,
it retains its ability to perform complex language tasks with high
accuracy.
● Training and Inference Acceleration: Leveraging Cerebras CS-3
system and Neural Magic’s DeepSparse engine, Sparse Llama
offers up to 8x training acceleration and 3x faster inference.

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source - https://www.cerebras.net/blog/introducing-sparse-llama-70-smaller-3x-faster-full-accuracy

Capabilities/Use Case of Sparse Llama

Sparse Llama’s unique capabilities and use cases are as follows:

● Efficiency: Sparse Llama’s ability to create highly sparse LLMs

without sacrificing accuracy makes it more accessible and
cost-effective for real-world applications. Its efficiency and speed
enable its deployment in scenarios where real-time processing is
crucial.
● Chatbots: With its 70% sparsity and 3x faster inference, Sparse
Llama can be used in latency-sensitive applications such as
chatbots, where real-time interaction is key. It can handle complex
conversational tasks, providing quick and accurate responses.
● Code Generation and Instruction Following: Sparse Llama can
be used for tasks such as code generation and instruction
following, where precision and accuracy are paramount. Its ability
to maintain full accuracy even with a significant reduction in
parameters makes it ideal for these tasks.
● Arithmetic Reasoning and Summarization: Sparse Llama’s
capabilities extend to tasks like arithmetic reasoning and
summarization. Its ability to understand and generate language

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makes it capable of performing complex reasoning tasks and

generating concise summaries.

How does Sparse Llama work?

The Sparse Llama model exemplifies a novel approach that ingeniously

blends multiple techniques to engineer highly sparse yet accurate Large
Language Models (LLMs). Here’s an overview of its methodology:

source - https://www.cerebras.net/blog/introducing-sparse-llama-70-smaller-3x-faster-full-accuracy

One-Shot Pruning: The process starts with one-shot pruning, a pivotal

technique that selectively eliminates the model’s non-critical weights.
This is a foundational step in downsizing the model and enhancing its
sparsity.

Sparse Pretraining: Subsequent to pruning, Sparse Llama undergoes a

phase of sparse pretraining. During this phase, the pruned architecture
is trained on extensive text data, enabling it to acclimate to its new,
leaner structure.

Fine-Tuning on Specific Datasets: Following pretraining, the model is

meticulously fine-tuned with targeted datasets. This fine-tuning is
instrumental in tailoring the model to specialized tasks, thereby
optimizing its performance.

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Leveraging CS-3’s Support for Unlimited Unstructured Sparsity: A

distinctive feature of Sparse Llama is its utilization of the CS-3 system’s
capability for unlimited unstructured sparsity. This contrasts with GPUs’
constrained sparsity capabilities, as the CS-3 system accommodates
arbitrary sparsity patterns at any level, aligning with the model’s intrinsic
structure and learned weights.

The synergy of advanced pruning, tailored pretraining, and the CS-3

system’s specialized hardware culminates in a model that is remarkably
reduced in size by up to 70%, thrice as fast, and yet fully accurate.

Performance Evaluation

The Sparse Llama Model has been evaluated through a series of

experiments, demonstrating its effectiveness and robustness across
different tasks and sparsity levels.

The Sparse Llama Model was pretrained using SparseGPT with uniform
sparsity profiles. The results indicate that sparse pretraining significantly
outperforms post-training pruning, especially at high sparsity levels. At
50% and 70% sparsity, the model achieved 96.1% and 91.8% recovery
of Llama Evaluation metrics respectively.

source - https://arxiv.org/pdf/2405.03594

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Experiments were conducted on GSM8K and CNN Daily Mail datasets to

assess the effectiveness of sparse fine-tuning. As detailed in table
above, sparse pretrained models achieved comparable or superior
performance to the current state-of-the-art for pruning during fine-tuning.

source - https://arxiv.org/pdf/2405.03594

Ablations were conducted on datasets representing large context tasks.

The results, as shown in table above, demonstrate the significant
advantage of sparse pretrained models for large context tasks,
especially at high sparsity levels.

Post-training quantization was applied to further compress the models.

The INT8 format for weights and activations was crucial for achieving
maximal speedups with the DeepSparse engine. The quantization
methodology resulted in negligible accuracy degradation across tasks.
Compared to baseline FP32 models, the reduction in compute through
INT8 kernels and sparsity decreased time-to-first token by 3.86x for a
standard 512 token prefill target, and reduced memory size through
quantization and sparsity enabled an increase of 8.6x in decode tokens
per second.

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Access and Usage

Sparse Llama is open-source and available for use. You can find the
model, along with its code and documentation, on the Neural Magic
website and HuggingFace Model Collections. It’s also available for
online demos via HuggingFace Spaces.

If you are interested to learn more about this model then all relevant links
are provided under the 'source' section at the end of this article.

Limitations

Sparse Llama represents a leap forward in the domain of Large

Language Models (LLMs), yet it encounters certain obstacles that need
addressing. The prevalent pruning techniques face challenges in
preserving accuracy when the models are highly sparse and tasked with
complex operations. Additionally, the current GPU hardware offers
limited support for sparsity, posing a significant barrier to advancing
sparsity research.

Conclusion

The Sparse Llama model marks a notable advancement within the Large
Language Models (LLMs) landscape, achieving remarkable sparsity
levels, offering a glimpse into a future where LLMs are not only powerful
but also efficient and accessible. Despite these strides, the journey is not
complete, ongoing research is essential to fully tap into the vast
possibilities that sparsity in LLMs presents.

Source
Website: https://www.cerebras.net/blog/introducing-sparse-llama-70-smaller-3x-faster-full-accuracy
arxiv research paper : https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.03594
arxiv research document: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2405.03594
Model collections: https://huggingface.co/neuralmagic
Code & Docs: https://docs.neuralmagic.com/llms/models/sparse-foundational-llama-2/
chat demo: https://huggingface.co/spaces/neuralmagic/llama-2-sparse-transfer-chat-deepsparse

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