Finetuning
Dictionary
Your A-to-Z Guide to Mastering LLM Finetuning
Bhavishya Pandit
A - Augmentation
Expanding model abilities with
external data or techniques.
Ensures better outputs by
adding domain knowledge.
Enhances reliability in fine-
tuned LLMs.
Common in adaptive learning
systems.
Credit:sych.io
B - Batch Size
The number of samples processed
before updating model weights.
Affects learning stability and
speed.
Balancing small and large batch
sizes is key.
Important for tuning
computational efficiency.
Source
Bhavishya Pandit
C - Curriculum Learning
Training models step-by-step with
increasing complexity.
Speeds up convergence.
Helps the model generalize
better to tasks.
Inspired by human learning
systems.
Source
D - Domain-Specific Tuning
Adapting LLMs to excel in specialized
fields.
Essential for medical, legal, or
finance sectors.
Improves performance in niche
applications.
Requires high-quality labeled
datasets.
Source
*self promotion ahead
Bhavishya Pandit
Stay Ahead with Our Newsletter! 🚀
👉 Subscribe now and never miss an update!
🔗 https://bhavishyapandit9.substack.com/
Join our family of 150+ members:
Step-by-step guides to mastering complex topics
Industry trends & innovations delivered straight to your inbox
Actionable tips to enhance your skills and stay competitive
Insights on cutting-edge AI & software development
💡 Whether you're a developer, researcher, or tech enthusiast, this newsletter is your
shortcut to staying informed and ahead of the curve.
Bhavishya Pandit
E - Embeddings
Converting text into numerical
vectors for analysis.
Key for semantic search &
dense retrieval.
Used extensively in fine-
tuning pipelines.
Powers tasks like
recommendations and Credit:Community.aws
clustering.
F - Few-Shot Learning
Fine-tuning with minimal labeled
data.
Enables rapid adaptation to
new tasks.
Helps in low-data scenarios.
Balances pre-training and
specialized knowledge.
Source
G - Gradient Descent
Optimization method to minimize
error in training.
Drives the learning process by
adjusting weights.
Central to every fine-tuning
process.
Requires proper tuning of
learning rates.
Source
H - Hyperparameters
Settings like batch size, learning rate,
and epochs.
Fine-tuning requires precise
hyperparameter optimization.
Impacts model accuracy and speed.
Experimentation helps achieve
optimal results.
Source
Bhavishya Pandit
I - Iterative Training
Refining models through repeated
training cycles.
Enhances performance step by
step.
Key for achieving state-of-the-art
results.
Reduces overfitting by Source
monitoring progress.
J - Joint Learning Trains retrieval and generation
components simultaneously.
Ensures better synergy between
retrieved data and generated
outputs.
Reduces the need for separate
fine-tuning.
Credit:arxiv.org Often leads to improved overall
system performance.
Bhavishya Pandit
K - Knowledge Distillation
Transferring knowledge from large
models to smaller ones.
Makes models more efficient
for deployment.
Retains essential capabilities
with fewer resources.
Common in low-resource
environments.
Source
L - Learning Rate
The speed at which the model
learns.
Critical to balance between
slow and fast learning.
Improper tuning can lead to
overfitting or
underperformance.
Often adjusted dynamically
during training.
Source
Bhavishya Pandit
M - Model Weights
Parameters learned during
training.
Define how the model
processes input.
Fine-tuning adjusts weights
for specific tasks.
Pretrained weights act as a Source
foundation.
N - Noise Handling
Addressing noisy or low-quality
data in fine-tuning.
Improves the model’s ability to
generalize.
Requires robust preprocessing
pipelines.
Common in messy, real-world
datasets.
Source
Bhavishya Pandit
O - Optimization
The process of improving model
performance.
Involves methods like Adam
or SGD.
Essential for faster
convergence in fine-tuning.
Balances trade-offs between
accuracy and efficiency.
Source
P - Pretraining
Training on large datasets before
fine-tuning.
Provides general knowledge
to the model.
Reduces data requirements
for fine-tuning.
Speeds up task-specific
adaptation.
Source
*self promotion ahead
Bhavishya Pandit
Stay Ahead with Our Newsletter! 🚀
👉 Subscribe now and never miss an update!
🔗 https://bhavishyapandit9.substack.com/
Join our family of 150+ members:
Step-by-step guides to mastering complex topics
Industry trends & innovations delivered straight to your inbox
Actionable tips to enhance your skills and stay competitive
Insights on cutting-edge AI & software development
💡 Whether you're a developer, researcher, or tech enthusiast, this newsletter is your
shortcut to staying informed and ahead of the curve.
Bhavishya Pandit
Q - Quality Evaluation
Measuring performance with
metrics like BLEU, ROUGE, or
accuracy.
Validates the effectiveness
of fine-tuning.
Guides iterative
improvements.
Helps identify issues like
overfitting. Source
R - Regularization
Techniques to prevent
overfitting.
Includes dropout, weight
decay, or early stopping.
Improves generalization on
unseen data.
Key for robust fine-tuned
models.
Source
Bhavishya Pandit
S - Supervised Fine-Tuning
Using labeled data to teach specific
tasks.
Boosts performance in well-
defined use cases.
Requires high-quality
annotations.
Common in domain-specific
applications.
Source
T - Tokenization
Splitting text into smaller units
(tokens).
Prepares data for model
consumption.
Handles variations like
punctuation and casing.
Fundamental for both
training and inference.
Credit:Youtube.com
Bhavishya Pandit
U - Underfitting
A model failing to capture data
patterns.
Often due to insufficient
training.
Addressed by increasing
complexity or data size.
Opposite of overfitting. Source
V - Validation Set
Dataset used to monitor training
performance.
Helps prevent overfitting
during fine-tuning.
Guides decisions on
hyperparameter tuning.
Ensures the model
generalizes well.
Source
Bhavishya Pandit
W - Warm-Start
Initializes retrieval systems with
pre-trained embeddings or
models.
Speeds up convergence and
improves early-stage
performance.
Reduces training time for new
tasks.
Common in transfer learning
scenarios.
Credit:determined.ai
X - Explainability
Understanding model
predictions.
Essential for building trust in
AI systems.
Identifies biases or issues in
fine-tuned outputs.
Key for high-stakes
applications like healthcare.
Credit:Medium.com
Bhavishya Pandit
Y - Yield Optimization
Maximizing output relevance
and efficiency.
Improves response
quality for fine-tuned
models.
Involves iterative
adjustments and
monitoring.
Enhances user
satisfaction in real-world Credit:fractal.ai
use.
Z - Zero-shot learning
Performing tasks without task-
specific fine-tuning.
Leverages general
knowledge from pretraining.
Useful for quick adaptation
to new domains.
A hallmark of advanced
LLMs.
Source
Bhavishya Pandit
Follow to stay updated on
Generative AI
SAVE LIKE REPOST
Bhavishya Pandit
