After training 𝐒𝐦𝐨𝐥𝐋𝐌𝟑 on 𝟑𝟖𝟒 𝐇𝟏𝟎𝟎𝐬 for nearly a month, I've come to realize something most people overlook: 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞-𝐨𝐫-𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐢𝐧 𝐋𝐋𝐌 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠. 🔥
Everyone talks about model architecture and data quality. And yes, those matter immensely. But here's what nobody tells you: when your training run fails at 2 AM because of mysterious 𝐍𝐂𝐂𝐋 𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐫𝐬, or when your expensive GPU cluster is running at 𝟔𝟎% 𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲, the problem isn't your model. It's most probably a 𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐞. 🛠️
Questions that seemed simple but had no clear answers: Why is 𝐌𝐨𝐄 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐬? Which 𝐍𝐂𝐂𝐋 𝐟𝐥𝐚𝐠𝐬 should we actually set? How often should we checkpoint without killing throughput?
That's why we built 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐦𝐨𝐥 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 📖: a complete guide covering everything from model architecture and data curation to the SmolLM3 training marathon, post-training techniques, and crucially, the 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐫 that most teams get wrong.
We validated real vs theoretical bandwidth across the entire stack: 𝐇𝐁𝐌𝟑 𝐡𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝟑 𝐓𝐁/𝐬, 𝐍𝐕𝐋𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝟒.𝟎 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝟕𝟖𝟔 𝐆𝐁/𝐬, 𝐏𝐂𝐈𝐞 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝟒 𝐚𝐭 𝟏𝟒.𝟐 𝐆𝐁/𝐬. Then we ran collective operations across 𝟏𝟐𝟖 𝐆𝐏𝐔𝐬 (16 nodes, 8xH100s each) and measured how performance degrades at scale: all-reduce drops from 𝟒𝟖𝟎 𝐆𝐁/𝐬 on a single node to 𝟑𝟐𝟎-𝟑𝟓𝟎 𝐆𝐁/𝐬 across 16 nodes.
If you've ever wondered why your training runs are slower than they should be, or you're planning to scale up and want to avoid expensive mistakes, this guide might save you weeks of debugging.
deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-OCR is out! 🔥 my take ⤵️ > pretty insane it can parse and re-render charts in HTML > it uses CLIP and SAM features concatenated, so better grounding > very efficient per vision tokens/performance ratio > covers 100 languages
🚀 New blog: Maintain the unmaintainable – 1M+ Python LOC, 400+ models
How do you stop a million-line library built by thousands of contributors from collapsing under its own weight? At 🤗 Transformers, we do it with explicit software-engineering tenets, principles that make the codebase hackable at scale.
🔍 Inside the post: – One Model, One File: readability first — you can still open a modeling file and see the full logic, top to bottom. – Modular Transformers: visible inheritance that cuts maintenance cost by ~15× while keeping models readable. – Config-Driven Performance: FlashAttention, tensor parallelism, and attention scheduling are config-level features, not rewrites.
Written with @lysandre,@pcuenq and @yonigozlan, this is a deep dive into how Transformers stays fast, open, and maintainable.
IBM just released small swiss army knife for the document models: granite-docling-258M on Hugging Face 🔥
> not only a document converter but also can do document question answering, understand multiple languages 🤯 > best part: released with Apache 2.0 license 👏 use it with your commercial projects! > it supports transformers, vLLM and MLX from the get-go! 🤗 > built on SigLIP2 & granite-165M
Smol course has a distinctive approach to teaching post-training, so I'm posting about how it’s different to other post-training courses, including the llm course that’s already available.
In short, the smol course is just more direct that any of the other course, and intended for semi-pro post trainers.
- It’s a minimal set of instructions on the core parts. - It’s intended to bootstrap real projects you're working on. - The material handsover to existing documentation for details - Likewise, it handsover to the LLM course for basics. - Assessment is based on a leaderboard, without reading all the material.
The course builds on smol course v1 which was the fastest way to learn to train your custom AI models. It now has:
- A leaderboard for students to submit models to - Certification based on exams and leaderboards - Prizes based on Leaderboards - Up to date content on TRL and SmolLM3 - Deep integration with the Hub’s compute for model training and evaluation
We will release chapters every few weeks, so you can follow the org to stay updated.
The open source AI community is just made of people who are passionate and care about their work. So we thought it would be cool to share our favourite icons of the community with a fun award.
Winners get free Hugging Face Pro Subscriptions, Merchandise, or compute credits for the hub.
This is a new initiative to recognise and celebrate the incredible work being done by community members. It's all about inspiring more collaboration and innovation in the world of machine learning and AI.
They're highlighting contributors in four key areas: - model creators: building and sharing innovative and state-of-the-art models. - educators: sharing knowledge through posts, articles, demos, and events. - tool builders: creating the libraries, frameworks, and applications that we all use. - community champions: supporting and mentoring others in forums.
Know someone who deserves recognition? Nominate them by opening a post in the Hugging Face community forum.