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Llama Fund: Crowdfund AI Models

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Re: Llama Fund: Crowdfund AI Models

#21

Post by mountainriver »

Havoc wrote: post #9

Contact page lists a single gmail addr? Model runs take millions. Was really expecting this to have a credible major sponsor or alternatively propose a new distributed torrent-y training model to sidestep the massive pile of money issue

This is just focused on crowdfunding the money rather than a fully distributed training system which is less efficient. Although we may look into using the Prime Intellect work down the road.

It's not that challenging to spin up a crowdfunding platform, the laws and registrations are simple. It's capped at $5m per project, but if you go further into Reg A or Co-op models you can extend that much further. You can still train amazing models with $5m.

The whole point is I'm not a big company, I just worked on a startup doing heavy ML training and was often dismayed by the state of the OSS ecosystem. Whole cottage industries can form around open sourced models, and I want to help power that.

Re: Llama Fund: Crowdfund AI Models

#23

Post by mountainriver »

pama wrote: post #14
mountainriver wrote: post #2

Hey HN, I'm sick and tired of the big labs controlling most of the generative AI landscape. We are launching Llama Fund as a means of democratizing large scale AI model training through crowd funding. Our platform will allow researchers to propose a training pipeline, from data curation to the number of GPUs required. Ideally they will already have a toy model working. From there users can crowdfund the effort based…

Who is “we” (in the “We are launching”) and what is the mechanism you can convince people/investors that you or the proposer of the project know how to train large scale models and can make accurate practical estimates?

I have post-trained LLMs a lot, but ultimately it's not me proving it, it's the researchers who would pitch their work.

They can pitch it however it makes sense for their work, giving milestones similar to any other crowd funding platform.

Re: Llama Fund: Crowdfund AI Models

#24

Post by mountainriver »

CuriouslyC wrote: post #10
mountainriver wrote: post #2

Hey HN, I'm sick and tired of the big labs controlling most of the generative AI landscape. We are launching Llama Fund as a means of democratizing large scale AI model training through crowd funding. Our platform will allow researchers to propose a training pipeline, from data curation to the number of GPUs required. Ideally they will already have a toy model working. From there users can crowdfund the effort based…

I think this is cool, it's not too hard to get a 500m model doing some sort of interesting stuff as a home researcher but scaling it into the low billions to see if it remains competitive out of my own pocket is a non starter.

Exactly! Even if we could get to training 8b models that would be amazing

Re: Llama Fund: Crowdfund AI Models

#26

Post by mountainriver »

quadrature wrote: post #7

I really like the idea of crowd funding research or the opposite public funding of citizen science. It would be interesting to also have a space where the community could propose research directions.

Thats what this is! Researchers propose their work, and the community can fund it. Similar to other crowd funding platforms

Re: Llama Fund: Crowdfund AI Models

#27

Post by mountainriver »

jsheard wrote: post #3

You know Llama is a Meta trademark, right? If you want to compete with the big labs then step one should be to avoid handing them a loaded gun to shoot you down with.

It was named that after r/LocalLlama, one of the biggest AI communities on reddit. Lots of people use "llama" now, I'm not super worried about it but may change it if it's confusing to people.

Re: Llama Fund: Crowdfund AI Models

#28

Post by vunderba »

mountainriver wrote: post #20
CharlesW wrote: post #18

Patrick, it’s really hard to tell if you're serious or legitimate from this made-in-Lovable-in-5-minutes site. If you are serious, I recommend that you ask the admins (hn@ycombinator.com) to delete this post, then spend at least half an hour thinking about a better name, and what readers might need to know before you (1) create a more substantive landing page and (2) re-announce. That would at least give you a chance…

I am building the backend full time for this, I'm serious about it and see it as one of the biggest issues in the ecosystem today. I'm looking to gauge interest in the concept to hopefully raise more to implement it faster. What exactly is wrong about it? I spent a fair amount of time on it and just saying "its bad" isn't really helpful feedback.

I'll take a stab at providing some specifics:

- the black text on fog gray background gradient is... not great looking.

- What's with the seemingly arbitrary floating red sun?

- the name Llama.fund is a bit odd given this is for general LLM models.

Thematically it just feels all over the place.

Re: Llama Fund: Crowdfund AI Models

#29

Post by CharlesW »

mountainriver wrote: post #20
CharlesW wrote: post #18

Patrick, it’s really hard to tell if you're serious or legitimate from this made-in-Lovable-in-5-minutes site. If you are serious, I recommend that you ask the admins (hn@ycombinator.com) to delete this post, then spend at least half an hour thinking about a better name, and what readers might need to know before you (1) create a more substantive landing page and (2) re-announce. That would at least give you a chance…

I am building the backend full time for this, I'm serious about it and see it as one of the biggest issues in the ecosystem today. I'm looking to gauge interest in the concept to hopefully raise more to implement it faster. What exactly is wrong about it? I spent a fair amount of time on it and just saying "its bad" isn't really helpful feedback.

> I spent a fair amount of time on it…

That's a red flag for me if true.

> …just saying "its bad" isn't really helpful feedback.

Not sure if serious, but you can start with these:

• Trademark misuse – Legal exposure, identity confusion, invites takedown

• Gmail contact address – Unprofessional, lacks credibility, signals amateur status

• Anonymous "we" – No trust, no track record, only named person using alt email

• Lovable-generated site – Bad looking, substance-free, designed to farm email addresses

Re: Llama Fund: Crowdfund AI Models

#30

Post by Havoc »

mountainriver wrote: post #21
Havoc wrote: post #9

Contact page lists a single gmail addr? Model runs take millions. Was really expecting this to have a credible major sponsor or alternatively propose a new distributed torrent-y training model to sidestep the massive pile of money issue

This is just focused on crowdfunding the money rather than a fully distributed training system which is less efficient. Although we may look into using the Prime Intellect work down the road. It's not that challenging to spin up a crowdfunding platform, the laws and registrations are simple. It's capped at $5m per project, but if you go further into Reg A or Co-op models you can extend that much further. You can stil…

Thanks for the sincere response to my comment that likely came across quite direct.

I do think for critical mass this will need a 3rd party custodian or platform of sorts though. DIY crowdfunding may not be hard to set up legally, but it's still facing the same rug pull risks as other crowdfundings.

To be clear my concern here is structural - not challenging your personal integrity. I'm sure your heart is in the right place

>I want to help power that.

Same - I love the direction. Especially given risk of the big players running away with this and OSS gang being left with no competitive models. Think it would need a bit more guardrails before I drop in cash though

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