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Ember-1

589 points · 249 comments · gmays

  1. GodelNumbering · · focus · HN ↗
    This is the golden age of model training. Some days ago, I decided I wanted a local CPU only model that can perform exceptionally well for English to Bash translation (to avoid the googling for command syntax). I got a bunch of subagents to generate large amount of training data (140k+ samples), got the Qwen 3 0.6B base model, pointed Astra at it, and off to the races. It trained for 2 days (on and off) and I got a surprisingly good model for my task! The total active time I spent was a few hours. And it is still improving, what a time to be alive!
    1. shriphani · · focus · HN ↗
      what hardware are you using to train?
      1. GodelNumbering · · focus · HN ↗
        I didn't have a local GPU, so I asked it to go out and find hardware. It found a google TPU v6e which seemed reasonably priced. I gave it my google api key. I told it to use TPU only when training and bring it down afterwards. That's about it.
        1. libria · · focus · HN ↗
          > I gave it my google api key

          This is the part where the narrator looks at the camera and says "Don't try this at home, kids!"

          1. bitpush · · focus · HN ↗
            Why? Isnt the API key scoped to a project and specifically made for this?

            Are you confusing this with an OAuth token or something?

            1. raizer88 · · focus · HN ↗
              Until astra goes bonkers and use the tpu for days
              1. verdverm · · focus · HN ↗
                this is what billing caps are for

                <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;docs.cloud.google.com&#x2F;billing&#x2F;docs&#x2F;how-to&#x2F;budgets-spend-caps" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;docs.cloud.google.com&#x2F;billing&#x2F;docs&#x2F;how-to&#x2F;budgets-sp...

                1. degamad · · focus · HN ↗
                  Billing caps that Google notoriously doesn&#x27;t enforce?
              2. steve_adams_86 · · focus · HN ↗
                This is kind of what it was supposed to do, in this case
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