TechTalk night: Fine-tuning Large Language Models

The PyData Vancouver team is excited to resume in person meetups!

Join us for an evening of discovery, networking, and knowledge exchange at our upcoming TechTalk. This event is designed for Python enthusiasts, data analysis tool developers, and everyone intrigued by the expansive world of data science. Our primary goal is to create a conducive environment for learning, sharing, and discussing the various ways Python can be applied in the realm of data management, processing, analytics, and visualization.

Event Agenda:
6:00 pm: Doors open, come and mingle with PyData enthusiasts!
6:15-6:45 housekeeping, ice breaker exercise, and community announcements
6:45-8:00: Talk + Q&A
**After 8 pm: (**Optional) post-discussion dinner and drinks at a nearby location, which will be announced at the event.

We thank our venue sponsor, BrainStation, for providing a space for this meetup!

Talk: Instruction fine-tuning RedPajama INCITE LLM with Pablo Duboue

LLMs (large language models, like ChatGPT) are a new type of tool in the AI repertoire with capabilities unseen before in the field. Until recently, everything seemed to be addressed by going into larger and larger models, but in the last few months, smaller open source models are making inroads to the point of starting to worry engineers in some of the tech giants.

In this talk, Pablo will show how to fine-tune the RedPajama INCITE 2.8B model for an accessibility task. Besides the engineering details, we will touch on the differences between instructional training (that needs writers) and traditional classification training (that just needs annotators).

We look forward to seeing you at PyData Night, an evening dedicated to unraveling the mysteries and opportunities in the exciting world of Python and data analysis!

Land Acknowledgement
This event will take place is the unceded and ancestral territory of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh speaking peoples, the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, and has been stewarded by them since time immemorial.