Exponentially Faster Language Modelling
Authors: name: Peter Belcak; name: Roger Wattenhofer
Published: 2023-11-15 18:42:50

Abstract: Language models only really need to use an exponential fraction of their
neurons for individual inferences. As proof, we present FastBERT, a BERT
variant that uses 0.3\% of its neurons during inference while performing on par
with similar BERT models. FastBERT selectively engages just 12 out of 4095
neurons for each layer inference. This is achieved by replacing feedforward
networks with fast feedforward networks (FFFs). While no truly efficient
implementation currently exists to unlock the full acceleration potential of
conditional neural execution, we provide high-level CPU code achieving 78x
speedup over the optimized baseline feedforward implementation, and a PyTorch
implementation delivering 40x speedup over the equivalent batched feedforward
inference. We publish our training code, benchmarking setup, and model weights.