RecurrentGemma: A Leap Beyond Transformers with PyTorch Integration

Ankush k Singal
Technology Hits
Published in
3 min readApr 11, 2024

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Ankush k Singal

Source: Image created by Author using MidJourney

Introduction

In the realm of natural language processing (NLP), the advent of transformers marked a significant breakthrough. However, as with any technology, there is always room for innovation and improvement. Enter RecurrentGemma, a groundbreaking open language model developed by Google DeepMind’s Gemma Team. Powered by the novel Griffin architecture, RecurrentGemma promises efficient inference and competitive performance, challenging the supremacy of transformer-based models like Gemma-2B.

Source: Throughput-comparison

Definition

RecurrentGemma-2B, an offspring of the Griffin architecture, redefines the landscape of language modeling. Unlike traditional transformers relying on global attention mechanisms, Griffin employs a fusion of linear recurrences and local attention, enabling RecurrentGemma to excel in downstream tasks comparable to Gemma-2B. The absence of global attention reduces memory overhead and facilitates efficient inference on lengthy sequences, making RecurrentGemma a formidable contender in the NLP arena.

Source: benchmark results

Benefits of Integration

PyTorch, a popular deep learning framework, serves as the foundation for implementing RecurrentGemma. The integration with PyTorch brings a plethora of benefits:

  1. Ease of Use: PyTorch’s intuitive interface simplifies model development and experimentation, allowing researchers and practitioners to focus on innovation rather than wrestling with complex APIs.
  2. Flexibility: PyTorch’s dynamic computation graph empowers users to define and modify models on-the-fly, facilitating rapid prototyping and experimentation.
  3. Community Support: With a vibrant community and extensive documentation, PyTorch provides ample resources for troubleshooting, collaboration, and knowledge sharing.
  4. Interoperability: PyTorch seamlessly integrates with other Python libraries and frameworks, enabling interoperability with existing tools and workflows.
Source: Image created by Author

Code Implementation

Let’s delve into the code implementation of RecurrentGemma. Implementing RecurrentGemma with PyTorch involves leveraging the Griffin architecture and incorporating key model hyper-parameters.

Source: Image created by Author using MidJourney

Step I: Install Libraries

pip install transformers

Step II: Chat Template

from transformers import AutoTokenizer, AutoModelForCausalLM
import transformers
import torch
model_id = "google/recurrentgemma-2b-it"
dtype = torch.bfloat16
tokenizer = AutoTokenizer.from_pretrained(model_id)
model = AutoModelForCausalLM.from_pretrained(
model_id,
device_map="cuda",
torch_dtype=dtype,
)
chat = [
{ "role": "user", "content": "Write a hello world program" },
]
prompt = tokenizer.apply_chat_template(chat, tokenize=False, add_generation_prompt=True)

## After the prompt is ready, generation can be performed like this:
inputs = tokenizer.encode(prompt, add_special_tokens=False, return_tensors="pt")
outputs = model.generate(input_ids=inputs.to(model.device), max_new_tokens=150)
print(tokenizer.decode(outputs[0]))

Conclusion

RecurrentGemma, propelled by the Griffin architecture and seamlessly integrated with PyTorch, heralds a new era in efficient open language modeling. Its competitive performance, coupled with PyTorch’s versatility and ease of use, positions RecurrentGemma as a frontrunner in the quest for advanced NLP solutions. As we continue to push the boundaries of innovation, RecurrentGemma stands as a testament to the power of collaboration and ingenuity in shaping the future of AI.

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Ankush k Singal
Technology Hits

My name is Ankush Singal and I am a traveller, photographer and Data Science enthusiast .