Narrow AI: Experimental Model Repository

This repository contains experimental model checkpoints and data from the paper "On the creation of narrow AI: hierarchy and nonlocality of neural network skills" by Eric Michaud, Asher Parker-Sartori, and Max Tegmark.

Repository Contents

This dataset provides the hard-to-reproduce LLM experimental artifacts that support the paper's key figures, particularly training curves and model performance data for scaling analysis and pruning studies.

Experiments Included

1. trainscratch01/ - LLMs Trained from Scratch

Purpose: Training small to medium LLMs from scratch for scaling analysis
Models: 9 architectures ranging from 23M to 1.6B parameters
Architecture format: d{hidden_size}_l{num_layers}_h{num_heads}
Key models included:
- d768_l12_h12/ - 338M parameters (representative medium model)
- d2048_l32_h32/ - 1.6B parameters (large model for scaling)
Training: 100K steps on GitHub code dataset
Paper figures: Figure 6, Figure 12

2. pruneandtrain01/ - Attribution-Based Pruning

Purpose: Pruning LLaMA-3.2-1B using gradient attribution, then recovery training
Base model: NousResearch/Llama-3.2-1B
Configurations: Various neuron and residual sparsity levels
Key configurations included:
- n0.50_r0.50/ - 50% neuron, 50% residual pruning (moderate)
- n0.90_r0.50/ - 90% neuron, 50% residual pruning (aggressive)
Unique files:
- pruning_mask.pt - Binary masks indicating pruned neurons
- pruning_stats.json - Detailed attribution scores and pruning decisions
- experiment_metadata.json - Sparsity levels and run metadata
Paper figures: Figure 6, Figure 12, Figure 13

3. pruneandtrainrandom00/ - Random Pruning Baseline

Purpose: Random pruning comparison for attribution-based methods
Configuration: n0.50_r0.20/ for direct comparison with attribution methods
Paper figures: Figure 13

4. distillscratch00/ - Knowledge Distillation (Selected)

Purpose: Training small models via knowledge distillation
Teacher models: Meta-Llama-3.1-8B, Llama-3.2-3B
Student: d768_l12_h12/ architecture for comparison
Paper figures: Figure 6, Figure 12

Model Architecture Details

Parameter Scaling

Model	Hidden Size	Layers	Heads	Intermediate	Parameters
d256_l4_h4	256	4	4	1024	~23M
d512_l8_h8	512	8	8	2048	~92M
d768_l12_h12	768	12	12	3072	~338M
d2048_l32_h32	2048	32	32	8192	~1.6B

Pruning Configurations

Config	Neuron Sparsity	Residual Sparsity	Description
n0.50_r0.50	50%	50%	Moderate pruning
n0.90_r0.50	90%	50%	Aggressive neuron pruning
n0.50_r0.20	50%	20%	Light residual pruning

File Structure

Each model directory contains:

Standard Checkpoints

final_model/ - Final trained model
checkpoint-{step}/ - Intermediate checkpoints (every 5K steps)
model_stats.json - Parameter counts and architecture info

Files per Checkpoint

model.safetensors - Model weights in SafeTensors format
config.json - Model configuration
tokenizer.json - Tokenizer configuration
trainer_state.json - Training history and loss curves
training_args.bin - Training arguments

Pruning-Specific Files

pruning_mask.pt - Binary masks for pruned parameters (~5GB)
pruning_stats.json - Attribution scores and pruning decisions (~8MB)
experiment_metadata.json - Run metadata and sparsity settings

Usage Examples

Loading a Model

from transformers import AutoModelForCausalLM, AutoTokenizer

# Load a trained-from-scratch model
model = AutoModelForCausalLM.from_pretrained("ericjm/narrow-data/trainscratch01/d768_l12_h12/final_model")
tokenizer = AutoTokenizer.from_pretrained("ericjm/narrow-data/trainscratch01/d768_l12_h12/final_model")

Loading Pruning Data

import torch
import json

# Load pruning mask and statistics
config = "n0.50_r0.50"
mask = torch.load(f"ericjm/narrow-data/pruneandtrain01/{config}/pruning_mask.pt")
with open(f"ericjm/narrow-data/pruneandtrain01/{config}/pruning_stats.json") as f:
    stats = json.load(f)

Analyzing Training Curves

import json

# Load training history
with open("ericjm/narrow-data/trainscratch01/d768_l12_h12/final_model/trainer_state.json") as f:
    trainer_state = json.load(f)
    
training_loss = [entry['train_loss'] for entry in trainer_state['log_history'] if 'train_loss' in entry]

Reproducing Paper Figures

Figure 6 & 12: LLM Training Frontiers

Data: Training curves from trainscratch01/, distillscratch00/, pruneandtrain01/
Analysis: Compare training efficiency and final performance across methods
Notebook: See paper repository for analysis code

Figure 13: Attribution vs Random Pruning

Data: Recovery curves from pruneandtrain01/ vs pruneandtrainrandom00/
Key comparison: n0.50_r0.20 configuration in both experiments

Technical Details

Training Setup

Dataset: codeparrot/github-code (Python subset)
Sequence length: 1024 tokens
Tokenizer: Meta-Llama-3.1-8B tokenizer
Training steps: 100K for scratch training, 20K for pruning recovery
Learning rate: 5e-4 (scratch), 5e-5 (pruning recovery)

Pruning Method

Attribution: Gradient-based neuron importance scoring
Sparsity: Separate control of neuron and residual stream dimensions
Recovery: Fine-tuning with masked gradients to recover performance

Computational Requirements

Training: NVIDIA A100 80GB
Storage: ~50GB for essential models, ~1TB for complete archive
Memory: Models range from 23M to 1.6B parameters

Citation

If you use this data in your research, please cite:

@article{michaud2024narrow,
  title={On the creation of narrow AI: hierarchy and nonlocality of neural network skills},
  author={Michaud, Eric and Parker-Sartori, Asher and Tegmark, Max},
  journal={arXiv preprint},
  year={2024}
}

License

This dataset is released under the same license as the paper. Please see the paper repository for detailed licensing information.

Contact

For questions about this dataset, please contact Eric Michaud or open an issue in the paper's repository.