Core Insights - Thinking Machines, valued at $12 billion, has released its first research blog focusing on overcoming nondeterminism in large language model (LLM) inference [1][51]. - The research emphasizes the challenge of reproducibility in LLM outputs, attributing it to batch non-invariance [3][12]. Group 1: Research Focus - The main theme of the research is "Defeating Nondeterminism in LLM Inference," which addresses why LLM inference results are often non-reproducible [3][8]. - The root cause identified is batch non-invariance, where the output of a single request is influenced by the number of requests in the same batch [14][15]. Group 2: Technical Findings - The research indicates that floating-point non-associativity and concurrent execution lead to different results in LLM inference, but this explanation is incomplete [9][10]. - The study reveals that the lack of batch invariance is the primary issue, as dynamic adjustments to batch sizes during deployment affect the computation order of key operations [15][16]. Group 3: Proposed Solutions - To achieve batch invariance, the research suggests fixing the reduction order in operations like RMSNorm and matrix multiplication, regardless of batch size [18][19]. - The proposed method involves compiling a unified kernel configuration for all input shapes to avoid switching parallel strategies due to batch size changes, even if it results in a performance loss of about 20% [22][21]. Group 4: Experimental Validation - Three types of experiments were conducted to validate the findings: inference determinism verification, performance verification, and real online policy reinforcement learning application verification [25]. - Results showed that using batch invariant kernels led to 1000 identical outputs, achieving deterministic inference, while non-invariant kernels produced 80 different results [27][28]. Group 5: Company Background - Thinking Machines was co-founded by Mira Murati, former CTO of OpenAI, and includes a team of notable figures from the AI industry, primarily from OpenAI [36][38][46]. - The company recently completed a $2 billion seed funding round, setting a record for AI funding, and is now valued at $12 billion despite not having any product yet [51][50].
她们估值840亿,刚发了第一个AI成果
量子位·2025-09-11 01:58