Understanding the Expenses of Training Large Language Models

Large language models (LLMs) such as OpenAI’s GPT series and Google’s BERT are fundamental technologies that power numerous applications, from automated customer service to advanced research tools.

Training these models demands significant financial resources, mainly because of the extensive parameter spaces and computational power needed. Training LLMs necessitates the use of top-tier GPUs or specialized AI hardware, which can be quite expensive. For instance, the estimated compute cost for training GPT-3 alone varies from approximately $500,000 to as high as $4.6 million, depending on the specific hardware and operational efficiencies achieved during the training process.

This article delves into the complex costs associated with creating generative AI models, with a primary focus on infrastructure requirements, data management, and the growing significance of cloud computing. Keep reading to gain a comprehensive understanding of the financial and logistical factors that influence the development of large language models today.

What are large language models?

LLMs are specifically designed to replicate human intelligence by being trained on extensive datasets comprising text from various sources such as books, websites, and other digital content. Through this training, they acquire the statistical properties of language, enabling them to produce coherent and contextually relevant text based on the input they receive. For instance, models like GPT are trained on diverse internet text and can generate text that closely resembles human writing styles across a wide range of contexts and topics.

Transformer models are commonly utilized for constructing LLMs. These models employ attention and context awareness mechanisms to analyze various parts of text in relation to one another. This enables the model to assign different weights to different parts of the input text based on the context provided by other parts of the text. This context awareness plays a critical role in comprehending and producing coherent and contextually relevant responses.

BERT is a prime example of a model that can comprehend the context of words in a sentence by reading the text bidirectionally (both left-to-right and right-to-left). This capability makes BERT especially effective for tasks that require a deep understanding of language context, such as answering questions or classifying text. LLMs have diverse applications, impacting industries from healthcare, where they can predict patient outcomes based on historical data, to entertainment, where they generate realistic dialogues for virtual characters. Let’s now delve into the cost of training LLMs with cloud services.

Cost of training LLMs with cloud servers

As AI development moves towards cloud platforms due to reasons such as GPU shortages, cloud services are the most convenient and dependable method for training LLMs. Their scalability is also superb for handling the fluctuating demands of AI training cycles.

The training of large language models (LLMs) like GPT-MoE-1.8T, which stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer Mixture of Experts with 1.8 trillion parameters, is a computationally intensive and resource-demanding process. According to Jensen Huang, the CEO of NVIDIA, training this model required the use of 25,000 Ampere-based GPUs, likely the A100, over a period of 3 to 5 months. However, with the advent of NVIDIA’s Hopper (H100) GPUs, the same training could be accomplished with approximately 8,000 GPUs in just 90 days.

Given the substantial financial investment required for training such massive models from scratch, most users are likely to leverage pre-trained models offered by companies or organizations like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or the open-source Llama2 model, instead of undertaking the training process themselves.

Why is it so expensive to train LLMs?

The training of large language models (LLMs) is a computationally intensive process that demands significant resources. These models comprise billions of parameters, and their training involves intricate algorithms executed on powerful hardware, such as graphics processing units (GPUs), for extended periods ranging from days to months. Utilizing cloud services that provide the necessary infrastructure for this task comes with a substantial financial burden. The overall cost is influenced by various factors, including the duration of computation, the storage capacity required, and the volume of data transfer involved.

Steps to controlling the cost of training LLMs

While the cost of training LLMs remains significant, there are strategies to optimize resource utilization and minimize expenses:

1. Implement model optimization techniques:

• Architecture Selection: Carefully choose a model architecture that balances complexity and desired performance. Smaller models often require fewer resources for training. Pruning techniques can further reduce model size without significantly compromising accuracy.
• Training Data Curation: Ensure that the training data is highly quality and relevant to the task. Filtering out irrelevant data can lead to faster training times and lower computational costs.
• Knowledge Distillation: In this process, a smaller “student” model is trained to replicate the performance of a larger “teacher” model. This allows the student model to benefit from the teacher’s knowledge without the extensive computational resources required to train the larger model from scratch. Being more compact, the student model is more efficient for deployment, especially in resource-constrained environments.
• Mixed-Precision Training: This technique utilizes half-precision (FP16) and single-precision (FP32) floating-point formats within a single training workflow. The goal is to accelerate training and reduce memory usage while maintaining the model’s accuracy and stability. Special techniques, such as loss scaling, are employed to manage the impact of reduced numerical precision on training dynamics. This can be implemented on compatible hardware like the NVIDIA H100 GPUs.

2. Consider hardware optimizations:

• Efficient Resource Utilization: Monitor resource utilization during the training process. Techniques like gradient accumulation can help achieve higher GPU utilization, leading to faster training times and reduced costs.
• Optimal Hardware Selection: Select hardware that offers the best performance-to-cost ratio for your specific training needs. Consider newer GPUs like the H100, which boast significant performance improvements over previous generations.
• Cloud Service Optimization: Explore different cloud service providers and pricing models. On-demand pricing might offer cost savings compared to reserved instances, depending on the predictability of your training schedule.

Can I train my own LLM?

Technically, you can train your own Large Language Model (LLM), but it can be very expensive. Training requires significant computational resources (powerful GPUs) and large amounts of data. Cloud services offer this infrastructure, but costs can reach millions of dollars depending on the model size and training time.

3. Optimize training configurations:

• Hyperparameter Optimization: Experiment with different learning rates, batch sizes, and other training hyperparameters to find the optimal configuration that balances training speed and accuracy.
• Early Stopping: Implement techniques to monitor training progress and stop training once the desired performance level is achieved. This prevents unnecessary resource consumption.
• Gradient Checkpointing: Periodically save the model state during training. This allows you to resume training from a checkpoint in case of hardware failures or interruptions, saving time and resources.

4. Consider using a mixture of experts model:

• Specialized sub-networks: Mixture of experts (MoE) architectures divide the training workload among multiple specialized sub-networks, or “experts.” Each expert focuses on a specific subset of the data, potentially leading to faster training times and improved efficiency compared to ensemble techniques.
• Reduced computational load: By distributing the training across multiple experts, MoE can more effectively utilize hardware resources, reducing the overall computational demands and lowering costs.
• Complexity and research: MoE is quickly becoming the prevalent way to keep model sizes manageable while covering a wide range of topics. Implementing MoE requires careful configuration and expertise.

5. Collaborate and utilize open-source tools:

Data acquisition can also enhance LLM training. Let’s examine the data requirements and their associated costs.

Data requirements and costs

Data quality, quantity, and diversity are crucial factors that directly impact the effectiveness and accuracy of large language models (LLMs). Obtaining, processing, and managing this data incurs substantial costs. The dataset needs to be vast and varied enough to train an unbiased model that can be generalized across different contexts. The dataset creation process involves extensive labor, including human tasks such as labeling for supervised learning scenarios, which adds to the overall cost.

However, this data does not come for free, and managing it efficiently adds significantly to the overall cost. Here’s a breakdown of the key financial considerations associated with data management for LLMs:

Data Acquisition and Storage:

• Data Procurement: Two primary ways to acquire data for LLM training are purchasing existing datasets or licensing access. Renowned research institutions and private companies often curate and sell text and code datasets designed to train AI models. Depending on their size, domain specificity, and quality, these datasets can be very expensive.
• Data Storage: Storing massive datasets requires significant storage capacity. Traditional on-premise storage solutions can be expensive to maintain and scale. Cloud storage services offer a more flexible and potentially cost-effective alternative, but the ongoing storage fees can accumulate over time, especially for datasets in the terabyte or petabyte range.

Data Preprocessing:

• Data Cleaning: Raw data is rarely usable in its original form for LLM training. It often requires extensive cleaning, labeling, and formatting. Removing irrelevant information like code comments, HTML tags, or duplicate entries can be a computationally expensive task, especially for large datasets.
• Data Labeling: Depending on the training objectives, data might need to be labeled with specific categories or information. This can be a labor-intensive process requiring human effort, or it can be automated with specialized tools, incurring software licensing costs.
• Data Formatting: Ensuring data is in a consistent format suitable for LLM training can involve additional processing and potentially custom software development.

Managing large datasets responsibly to adhere to privacy laws and ethical standards introduces additional layers of complexity and expense. Data anonymization, secure storage, and compliance with regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe or the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in California can increase the overhead costs for any AI project involving large language models (LLMs).

While it’s often stated that the demand for GPU power exceeds supply, this narrative overlooks the vast reservoir of underutilized GPUs outside centralized computing services. Many GPUs sit dormant, not because they aren’t needed, but because they aren’t accessible through traditional channels. The key to fueling the future of compute-intensive applications like AI lies in unlocking this immense computational potential — precisely what Spheron lets you do.

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By implementing these strategies, researchers and developers can significantly reduce the cost of training LLMs. Carefully optimizing models, leveraging efficient hardware and cloud services, and adopting cost-saving training configurations are all crucial for managing the financial burden associated with LLM development.

Originally published at https://blog.spheron.network on May 20, 2024.