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Could multiple 7b models outperform 70b models? (alien.top)

submitted 10 months ago by freehuntx@alien.top to c/localllama@poweruser.forum

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If i have multiple 7b models where each model is trained on one specific topic (e.g. roleplay, math, coding, history, politic...) and i have an interface which decides depending on the context which model to use. Could this outperform bigger models while being faster?

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[–] feynmanatom@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

This might be pedantic, but this is a field with so much random vocabulary and it’s better for folks to not be confused.

MoE is slightly different. An MoE is a single LLM with gated layers that “select” which layers to route embeddings/tokens to. It’s pretty difficult to scale and serve in practice.

I think what you’re referring to is more like a model router. You can use a general LLM to “classify” a prompt and then route the entire prompt to a downstream LLM. It’s unclear if this would be faster than a 70B LLM since you would repeat the encoding phase and have some generation, but it could certainly be better.

[–] wishtrepreneur@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

You can use a general LLM to “classify” a prompt and then route the entire prompt to a downstream LLM.

why can't you just train the "router" LLM on which downstream LLM to use and pass the activations to the downstream LLMs? Can't you have "headless" (without encoding layer) downstream LLMs? So inference could use a (6.5B+6.5B) params model with the generalizability of a 70B model.

[–] feynmanatom@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago

Hmm, not sure if I track what an encoding layer is? The encoding phase involves filling the KV cache across the depth of the model. I don’t think there’s an activation you could just pass across without model surgery + additional fine tuning.