Fine-tuned LLM vs RAG Short Notes #Fine-tuning a large language model (LLM) involves adapting a pre-trained model to a specific task or domain by updating its weights using a new dataset. This process is resource- intensive but enables the model to better handle specialized tasks or respond to domain-specific queries. Here's a step- by-step explanation: 1, Understand the Requirements Before fine-tuning, determine: Objective: Why fine-tune the model? Examples include sentiment analysis, summarization, or domain-specific generation, Dataset: Ensure you have a high-quality, task-specific dataset. Resources: Fine-tuning requires substantial computational power (e.g., GPUs, TPUs). 2. Prepare the EnvironmentHardware: Use a machine with multiple GPUs or TPUs. Framework: Install a deep learning framework like PyTorch or TensorFlow. Libraries: Install necessary libraries such as Hugging Face's transformers or accelerate. pip install transformers datasets accelerate 3. Select the Pre-trained Model Choose an appropriate pre-trained LLM from a library like Hugging Face Model Hub (e.9., GPT, BERT, TS). Considerations: Select a model that aligns with your task (eg., TS for summarization, GPT for generation). Model Size: Larger models provide better performance but require more resources. 4. Prepare the DatasetYour dataset should be: Task-Specific: Include input-output pairs relevant to the task. Cleaned: Remove irrelevant or noisy data. Tokenized: Use the same tokenizer as the pre-trained model. Example for text-to-text tasks: from transformers import AutoTokenizer tokenizer = AutoTokenizer.from_pretrained(''gpt2") encoded_dataset = dataset.map(lambda x: tokenizer(x['text"'], truncation=True, padding="max_length"), batched=True) S. Define the Training Pipeline Set up the model for fine-tuning: Load Pre-trained Model: Use a model compatible with your task. Define Loss Function; Use CrossEntropyLoss for classification tasks or a task-specific loss.Choose Optimizer: Commonly used optimizers include AdamW. Scheduler: Use learning rate schedulers like linear decay with warm-up. from transformers import AutoModelForCausallLM model = AutoModelForCausallM.from_pretrained('gpt2") 6. Training Configuration Define hyperparameters: Batch Size: Balance batch size with available GPU memory. Learning Rate: Use a small learning rate (e.g., Se-S). Epochs: Train for enough epochs to reach convergence but avoid overfitting. Gradient Accumulation: Use if batch size is limited by memory.7, Leverage Accelerated Training Use libraries like Hugging Face's Accelerate for distributed training. Example: from transformers import Trainer, TrainingArguments training_args = TrainingArguments( output_dir=" /results", evaluation_strategy="epoch", learning_rate=Se-S, per_device_train_batch_size=4, per_device_eval_batch_size=4, num_train_epochs=3, save_steps=10_000, save_total_limit=2, fpl6=True, # Use mixed precision for faster training ) trainer = Trainer model=model, args=training_args, train_dataset=train_dataset, eval_dataset=eval_dataset, ) trainer.trainQ8. Monitor Training Validation Loss: Monitor to prevent overfitting. Metrics: Track task-specific metrics (e.g., BLEU for translation, Fl-score for classification). 9, Save the Fine-tuned Model After training: model.save_pretrained(’'/fine_tuned_model") tokenizer.save_pretrained(''/fine_tuned_model") 10, Evaluate the Model Test the model on unseen data to assess performance. Use evaluation scripts tailored to the task.II, Optimize and Deploy Quantization: Reduce model size and inference time using techniques like ONNX or TensorRT. Deployment: Serve the model using Flask, FastAPI, or a cloud service (e.g., AWS, GCP). Example with Flask: from Hask import Flask, request, jsonify from transformers import AutoTokenizer, AutoModelForCausallLM app = Flask(__name__) model = ||_AutoModelForCausall M.from_pretrained(’'/fine_tuned_model") tokenizer = ||_AutoTokenizer.from_pretrained(’ /fine_tuned_model") @app.route("/generate", methods=["POST']) def generateQ): data = request,json inputs = tokenizer(datal"text"], return_tensors='pt") outputs = model.generateCinputsl' input_ids''], max_length=S0) return jsonifyCf response’: tokenizer.decode(outputs[0], skip_special_tokens=True) $)app.runO) 12, Maintain and Update Regularly evaluate and fine-tune the model with new data to ensure optimal performance as requirements evolve. By following these steps, you can effectively fine-tune an LLM for your specific needs. RAG: Creating a Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) model involves combining a retriever component, which fetches || relevant information from a knowledge base, and a generator component, which uses the retrieved context to generate responses. This is particularly useful when dealing with domain-specific data or when the knowledge exceeds the model's capacity. Below is a detailed step-by-step guide to creating a RAG model and training it on a particular dataset. 1, Understand RAG Architecture4 RAG model has two main components: Retriever: Extracts relevant documents or knowledge snippets based on the input query. Generator: Generates answers or content using the query and the retrieved context. 2. Prerequisites Programming Language: Python. Framework: Hugging Face's transformers and datasets libraries, along with FAISS Cfor retrieval). Hardware: A GPU/TPU-enabled system is recommended for efficient training. Install required libraries: pip install transformers datasets faiss-cpu accelerate3. Prepare the Dataset Format: Organize your data into two parts: 1, Knowledge Base (KB): Contains all possible context snippets (e.g., documents, sentences). 2. Query-Answer Pairs: Training dataset with input queries and corresponding answers. For example, in JSON format: c "knowledge_base’: [ Cid": "I", "text": "Python is a versatile programming language." , Cid": "2", "text": "It is widely used in data science and Al."? J, "query_answer_pairs": [ E’query’: "What is Python?", "answer’: " programming language." ? J f Python is a versatile Load the data:from datasets import Dataset knowledge_base = Dataset.from_dict(£"text"; ["Python is a versatile programming language.", "It is widely used in data science and Al."]}) qguery_answer_pairs = Dataset.from_dict(E'query": ['What is Python?"], "answer": ["Python is a versatile programming language."]3) 4, Build the Retriever The retriever indexes the knowledge base and retrieves relevant snippets for a given query. FAISS (Facebook Al Similarity Search) is commonly used for this. | 41 Tokenize the Knowledge Base Use a pre-trained tokenizer to encode the knowledge base. from transformers import AutoTokenizer tokenizer = AutoTokenizer.from_pretrained('bert-base- uncased") knowledge_base = knowledge_base.map(lambda x: E'embeddings": tokenizer(x['text"], truncation=True, padding=True, return_tensors="np")["input_ids'']})4.2 Index the Knowledge Base Build a FAISS index for fast retrieval. import faiss import numpy as np # Convert embeddings to numpy arrays embeddings = np.arrayC[np.mean(e, axis=0) for e in knowledge_basel embeddings’ ]]) index = faiss.IndexFlatL2Cembeddings.shapel!]) index.add(embeddings) 4.3 Query the Retriever Retrieve the top-k relevant documents for a query: def retrieveCquery, top_k=S): | query_embedding = tokenizer(query, return_tensors="np'') C"input_ids"]mean(axis=) distances, indices = index.search(query_embedding, top_k) return [knowledge_baseLiJl'text'] for i in indices0]] # Example retrieved_docs = retrieve('What is Python?") print(retrieved_docs)S. Build the Generator The generator uses the query and retrieved documents to generate responses. S.1 Load a Pre-trained Generator Select a generation model such as TS, BART, or GPT. from transformers import AutoModelForSeq2SeqLM generator = AutoModelForSeg2SeqLM from_pretrained(''facebook/bart- base") $.2 Prepare Input for the Generator Combine the query and retrieved context into a single input | for the generator. def prepare_input(query, retrieved_docs): context = " "join(retrieved_docs) input_text = f'Query: Equery? Context: Econtext}" return tokenizerCinput_text, return_tensors="pt', truncation=True, padding=True) input_data = prepare_inputC'What is Python?", retrieved_docs)6. Train the RAG Model Fine-tune the generator using the guery-answer pairs with retrieved context. 6.1 Define Training Pipeline Use Hugging Face's Trainer API for training. from transformers import TrainingArguments, Trainer def preprocess_function(examples): retrieved_docs = Lretrieve(q) for q in examplesl'guery']] inputs = [prepare_input(q, docs) ["input_ids"] for q, docs in 2ipCexamplesl' guery''], retrieved_docs)] targets = tokenizer(examples[ answer’), truncation=True, | padding=True) ["input_ids"] return €"input_ids': inputs, "labels": targets} tokenized_data = query_answer_pairs.map(preprocess_function, batched=True) training_args = TrainingArgumentsC output_dir="/rag_model”, evaluation_strategy="epoch", learning_rate=Se-S, per_device_train_batch_size=8, num_train_epochs=3,Save_steps=10_000, save_total_limit=2, tpl6=True # Use mixed precision for faster training ) trainer = Trainer( model=generator, args=training_args, train_dataset=tokenized_datal'train"], eval_dataset=tokenized_datal'test''], ) trainer.trainO) 7, Evaluate the Model After training, evaluate the model using unseen queries to verify its performance. def generate_response(query): retrieved_docs = retrieve(query) input_data = prepare_input(query, retrieved_docs) output = generator.generateCinput_datal''input_ids"], max_length=50) return tokenizer.decode(output[0], skip_special_tokens=True) print (generate_responseC'What is Python?"))8. Optimize and Deploy 8.1 Optimize for Inference Convert the model to a format like ONNX for faster inference. pip install onnx transformerslonnx] 3.2 Deploy Use a web framework like Flask or FastAPl to serve the RAG model. Example: from flask import Flask, request, jsonify app = Flask(__name__) @app.route'/rag", methods=["POST"]) def rag_endpointQ): data = request,json response = generate_response(datalguery'']) return jsonify(€'response': response }) app.runO)9. Maintain and Update Periodically update the knowledge base and retrain the retriever to incorporate new data, ensuring that the RAG model remains up-to-date. By following these steps, you can create and train a RAG model on your specific dataset for tasks such as question answering, document retrieval, or domain-specific chat applications. Fine-tuned vs RAG The choice between using a fine-tuned model and a Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) system depends on || the nature of the problem, the data, and your goals. Below is a detailed explanation of when to use each approach: When to Use a Fine-Tuned Model A fine-tuned model is a pre-trained model (e.g. GPT, TS, BERT) that has been specifically adjusted to perform well on a particular task using a labeled dataset.Use Cases for Fine-Tuning 1, Domain-Specific Tasks with Limited Context Size: When your task involves answering questions, generating content, or classification on a small to medium-sized dataset. Example: Classifying medical texts or generating chatbot responses in a closed domain like banking. 2. Well-Defined and Repetitive Tasks: For tasks with clear patterns and predictable outputs, where the model can learn to mimic these patterns. Example: Converting product descriptions into summaries. 3, When Data Is Fully Labeled: If you have a dataset with input-output pairs for supervised training. Example: Translating text, summarizing documents, or predicting customer sentiment.4. No Requirement for External Knowledge: If the task relies only on the information contained in the fine-tuned model's weights. Example: Sentiment analysis, code generation for simple algorithms. S. Model Deployment in Controlled Environments: When you're confident that the fine-tuned model will perform well in your use case without needing external knowledge. Example: Predicting financial trends using historical data. Advantages of Fine-Tuning: Performance: Can achieve high accuracy for specific tasks when trained with sufficient data, Efficiency: Simpler architecture; no need to maintain external retrieval systems. Self-Contained; Does not rely on external data or knowledge bases, making it easier to deploy.Challenges of Fine-Tuning: Limited Knowledge: The model cannot access updated or external knowledge after training. Data Dependency: Requires large, high-quality labeled datasets for fine-tuning. Costly Updates: Retraining is necessary whenever new data is introduced. When to Use a RAG Model A Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) model combines a || retriever (e.g., FAISS, Elasticsearch) to fetch external context and a generator (e.g., GPT, BART) to generate answers based on the retrieved context. Use Cases for RAG 1. Tasks Requiring Up-to-Date Information: When the knowledge required to answer questions frequently changes or is too large to be stored in the model's weights. Example: Answering questions about current events, companypolicies, or legal updates. 2. Large Knowledge Base: When the domain-specific knowledge exceeds the capacity of a fine-tuned model. Example: Technical support systems for complex products, where the knowledge base contains hundreds of thousands of documents. 3. Open-Domain Question Answering: For generating responses in scenarios where the possible questions span a wide range of topics. Example: A chatbot for customer queries across various industries. 4, Resource-Constrained Fine-Tuning: When fine-tuning a large model is infeasible due to hardware or data constraints.Example: Using RAG to leverage external documents without retraining the generator. S. Dynamic or Contextual Knowledge Retrieval: When answers depend on context retrieved from specific data sources (eg., databases, APIs, or documents). Example: Personalized recommendations or context-aware assistants. 6. Tasks Requiring Interpretability: When you need transparency about where the information comes from. Example: In healthcare or legal applications, the retriever can show the source of the information. Advantages of RAG: Scalability: Can handle massive, dynamic knowledge bases.Up-to-Date: Easily updated by modifying the retriever's indexed knowledge base. Interpretability: Retrieved documents can justify or support generated answers. Cost Efficiency: No need to fine-tune the generator for every dataset; update only the knowledge base. Challenges of RAG: Complexity: Requires maintaining both a retriever and generator, making the system harder to manage. Dependency on Retriever: Performance depends heavily on the retriever's ability to fetch relevant documents. | Inference Latency: Retrieving documents can add significant time to the inference process. Knowledge Base Maintenance: Keeping the knowledge base accurate and comprehensive is crucial. Key DifferencesWhen to Use Both Together In some cases, you can combine both approaches: Fine-Tune the Generator in a RAG System: Fine-tune the generator on your specific domain to improve its ability to work with retrieved knowledge. Example: A chatbot for legal advice where the generator is fine-tuned on legal terminology while still retrieving documents dynamically. By carefully assessing your task's requirements, data characteristics, and resource availability, you can choose between fine-tuning, RAG, or a hybrid approach for optimal results.