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btwillard

I hope that person is paying you for this positive PR spin!
As others here are saying, the rules are the same for everyone in that anyone can effectively buy their freedom (even if only gradually over time). The practical difference is that most people can't afford it.

Show HN: VLLM with JSON Guided Generation

https://outlines-dev.github.io/outlines/reference/vllm/

Our project, Outlines, now offers guided/constrained generation (e.g. according to a JSON schema) via the VLLM library.My colleague, Rémi, created some patches that allow one to pass vLLM a JSON schema along with the prompt, which dramatically simplifies deployment of JSON-guided generation. He also added a new `serve` interface that puts it all together and makes serving such models a 2-3...

( Read More... | 3 comments | 7 points | on HN )
Obviously it depends on exactly what those opinions will end up being. It's hard to dispel the idea that every other big company isn't trying to find a way to do exactly the same things as the other big players, just somewhere else down the line. My anticompetitive-potential detector definitely went off as soon as I read that headline.
Re:Show HN: An open-source alternative to OpenAI function calling on Wednesday November 15, 2023 @03:01PM (#38281631)
OpenAI function calling provides a means of producing valid JSON from a function signature, or a simplified version of a JSON schema definition; however, it has two big downsides:

1. it doesn't work with open-source models, and 2. sometimes the JSON it produces will not even parse.

A similar interface was recently merged into our open-source project Outlines. The approach can be extended to any open-source model and it can guarantee that the output will be parsable JSON.

Constructive feedback, bug reports, feature requests, and questions are greatly appreciated!

In my experience, that's always been the standard among Vim--and even some Emacs--users.
We've considered it, but I haven't started any work on it. Feel free to create an issue to track the status, if only to find out who else might be interested and/or working on it.
Our project Outlines provides JSON output in a near optimal way that also works for all types of pre-trained transformer-based LLMs: https://github.com/outlines-dev/outlines

Our approach also extends to EBNF grammars and LALR parsing. There's an example of that in the repository. It builds off of the Lark library, so you can use existing grammar specifications instead of starting from scratch.

Re:Some Reasons to Avoid Cython on Friday September 22, 2023 @10:45AM (#37612731)
In case anyone is wondering, this is essentially a few complaints about the basic transpilation/source-to-source approach taken by Cython and then some promotion for Rust. It unfortunately mixes some general C/C++ complaints in there, too.
Re:Show HN: LLMs can generate valid JSON 100% of the time on Monday August 14, 2023 @07:18PM (#37128086)
We also had an implementation of grammar-driven guidance around the same time: https://github.com/normal-computing/outlines/pull/131. I imagine many others did as well, given all the papers we found on the subject. The point of this and our ongoing work is the availability of very low cost guidance, which was implemented a while ago for the regex case and expanded upon with JSON.
Re:Show HN: LLMs can generate valid JSON 100% of the time on Monday August 14, 2023 @05:57PM (#37127315)
FYI: We've had grammar constraints available in Outlines for a while, but not using the FSM and indexing approach that makes the regex case so fast. My open PR only adds that.
Re:Show HN: LLMs can generate valid JSON 100% of the time on Monday August 14, 2023 @04:40PM (#37126535)
Ha, yeah, in a distant, but really fun, past!
Re:Show HN: LLMs can generate valid JSON 100% of the time on Monday August 14, 2023 @04:12PM (#37126196)
The underlying approach can improve the performance of anything that requires the set of non-zero probability tokens at each step, and anything that needs to continue matching/parsing from a previous state.
Re:Show HN: LLMs can generate valid JSON 100% of the time on Monday August 14, 2023 @04:03PM (#37126094)
Yeah, and our addition to all that is to almost completely remove the cost of determining the next valid tokens on each step.
Re:Show HN: LLMs can generate valid JSON 100% of the time on Monday August 14, 2023 @04:00PM (#37126066)
With our indexing approach, it only costs a dictionary lookup to get the next valid tokens during each sampling step, so very little latency.
Re:Stability AI Head of Research Resigns from Startup on Thursday June 29, 2023 @01:59AM (#36516882)
> It means I have exceptionally high confidence that this will be the biggest thing to hit the economy, society and markets in the last hundred years for good and ill.

How does having ADHD and/or Asperger's mean that? Are you implying that those give people high confidence?

Re:OpenXLA Is Available Now on Thursday March 09, 2023 @02:00PM (#35085130)
We're working on some of the DSL-related parts of this in https://github.com/aesara-devs
Re:Ask HN: Why is hiring so dehumanized, and what can be done? on Wednesday February 22, 2023 @02:59PM (#34901734)
It sounds like you're saying you want to hire people who weren't laid off? If so, what's the reasoning behind this?
Re:The mysterious doodles hidden in a 1,300-year-old book on Tuesday February 14, 2023 @11:49PM (#34800216)
Eh, Steve!?
Re:Ask HN: Open-Source GitHub Copilot? on Sunday November 06, 2022 @08:59AM (#33492692)
Not a complete replacement, but very cool and related: https://github.com/webyrd/Barliman
Re:What are Magnus Carlsen's chances of reaching 2900? on Friday August 26, 2022 @03:04PM (#32611433)
> Arxiv's submission policy says: "Submissions to arXiv should be topical and refereeable scientific contributions that follow accepted standards of scholarly communication." (https://arxiv.org/help/submit)

If you're implying that he violated ArXiV's submission policy, then you're going to need to stretch the definitions of those words a bit, as you attempted to do.

> I agree YouTube does not have this policy. I still find incorrectly claiming a proof of RH on YouTube distasteful, for similar reasons.

I get that you have all these personal opinions/takes, but ArXiV and YouTube don't appear to be justifying them.

> I personally know a mathematician who has pointed out the mistakes to him. But also, Polson good enough at math himself that he should be aware of these points. I would criticize him just the same if he knowingly published false economics results.

OK, so where did they post these discussions with Nick so that we can all clearly see that he's a bad or stupid person, as you're implying? Your comments assume that this is all common knowledge or apparent, but it isn't.

Are we just supposed to take your word for it? Well, I happen to know Nick, and, from my experiences with him, I have no reason to believe any of the things you're saying and/or implying.

Re:What are Magnus Carlsen's chances of reaching 2900? on Friday August 26, 2022 @02:33PM (#32611088)
Do you think he's trying to poison the minds of young mathematicians?

At the very least, you're raising ArXiV and YouTube to a standard they openly do not meet.

Also, did you raise these points to him and he denied your evidence/proofs? Do you know someone who did and you're speaking for them?

Re:What are Magnus Carlsen's chances of reaching 2900? on Friday August 26, 2022 @02:22PM (#32610978)
> It is bad practice to post incorrect results and not retract them when this is pointed out.

And it's good practice to take shots at people whenever you see their name?

Also, no, there's no "practice" that says you can't keep a mistake posted on ArXiV or YouTube. That just sounds like something you've made up to justify attacking someone.

And who's pointing this out to him?

Re:What are Magnus Carlsen's chances of reaching 2900? on Friday August 26, 2022 @02:13PM (#32610881)
> He has continued to update the paper (as recently as last year), it has not been retracted, and he appears to maintain the proof is correct on his YouTube channel.

You know that ArXiV and YouTube aren't considered "journals" and don't have a similar requirement for "retractions". It sounds like you think he should hide his shame; otherwise he deserves your attacks.

> We all make mistakes, and no one would really care if he admitted this. What makes the case notable is that he has enough mathematical training that he should really be able recognize his proof is wrong, especially after the errors are uncovered by others. Continuing to assert the proof is correct after errors have been found is bizarre.

People probably shouldn't, and don't, care because he's not affecting them in any way with his RH-related ArXiV and YouTube musing.

More importantly, where are there people showing him how his proof is wrong, and where is he outright denying their points/proofs? It seems like I'm missing a link or two, because I haven't seen any of these things, yet you're referring to them as though they're apparent and damning.

My guess is that he simply doesn't get feedback about this stuff, and he probably doesn't even care that much, because this is just a set of ideas with which he likes to work. I've seen no signs of a charged or "high stakes" math community engagement, and definitely not the kind that deserves these unwarranted personal criticisms.

Re:What are Magnus Carlsen's chances of reaching 2900? on Friday August 26, 2022 @01:16PM (#32610255)
> It's not the discussion that makes you a crank. It's publishing a paper claiming you have solved something that you haven't even begun to understand. It's bypassing peer review. It's ignoring all the literature out there and claiming that is somehow a virtue.

You've effectively said that people can't post things on ArXiV unless they're up to your unstated standards; otherwise, they're just "cranks".

Also, no one is "bypassing peer review" by posting on ArXiV and/or YouTube, nor have I seen anyone claim "a virtue" of any sort. Where are you getting all this? From the abstracts?

> It just wastes everyone's time. For example, this paper. It would take a lot of time to sit down and work through the math until I find a specific error in it. But the barren abstract and reference sections strongly suggest that would be a huge waste of my time and energy.

Well, since you've now admitted that you haven't read his work, it seems like everything you said earlier really must be coming from the abstracts alone.

> It just wastes everyone's time. For example, this paper. It would take a lot of time to sit down and work through the math until I find a specific error in it. But the barren abstract and reference sections strongly suggest that would be a huge waste of my time and energy.

Who's time is wasted? The random people who volunteer to read his ArXiV submissions and/or YouTube videos? Really, the only waste of time I've seen is your ad hominem comment in a HN post that isn't even about the author you're blatantly criticizing.

> Mochizuki pulled this stunt with the ABC conjecture. Wasted YEARS of mathematicians' time just to arrive at the conclusion it was all elaborate mathematical smoke and mirrors. The guy is an egotistical asshole with a messiah complex, and managed to burn a lot of PhD students by chasing his red herring. Not cool.

And that's why we must all attack Mochizuki whenever we see his name, right? Do you know Nick? Is he egotistical? Does he have a messiah complex? Are you just going on a tangent now? Are you just math trolling?

Re:What are Magnus Carlsen's chances of reaching 2900? on Friday August 26, 2022 @12:25PM (#32609469)
It's odd that people can't work on something in which they're interested and talk about it publicly without being labeled a "crank".

Sorry, there's nothing holy about the Riemann Hypothesis; anyone can add their input to the problem, especially on ArXiV and/or YouTube. You know, that's how discussions can start, and sometimes people want to discuss things with others.

It seems like you might think only certain people should work on these special problems, and only if they do it correctly according to you.

Your comment is just an ad hominem, so why don't you tell us why you're actually mentioning this? Do you think the math is wrong in the relevant material from the article because of his RH-related musings on ArXiV, or do you have an anti-RH-researcher bias that you want to share with the world? Are you just hating on someone?

Re:Ask HN: Have you found a good desk chair? on Friday June 18, 2021 @08:24PM (#27556602)
It's a pretty big investment, but there's a sit/stand/lay workstation here: https://altwork.com/

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