Making Open Models 10x faster and better for Modern Application Innovation: Dmytro (Dima) Dzhulgakov
Oct 9, 2024 · 18:55
Dmytro Dzhulgakov, CTO of Fireworks AI, argues that open-source models are the future for GenAI applications because they offer lower latency, lower cost, and domain adaptability compared to proprietary models. He explains that open models can be up to 10x faster for narrow domains and cut costs significantly, using examples like fine-tuned Llama 3 for function calling. Fireworks addresses the challenges of setup, optimization, and production readiness with a custom serving stack that delivers the fastest inference for long prompts and image generation (e.g., SDXL). He highlights FireFunction V2, an open-source model for function calling that combines chat and tool use, and notes that Fireworks serves over 150 billion tokens per day for companies like Quora and Cursor. The talk emphasizes that platforms like Fireworks enable developers to start with serverless inference, fine-tune models, and scale to enterprise-grade deployment with dedicated hardware.
