Avoidable and Unavoidable Randomness in GPT-4o
Briefly

The article discusses the inherent randomness in GPT-4o's outputs, despite attempts to ensure consistency through fixed seeds and temperature settings. It emphasizes the significance of determinism in machine learning models, underscoring its importance for researchers conducting reproducible experiments, developers troubleshooting their work, and prompt engineers monitoring output variations. The piece also highlights the complex balance between desirable creativity in large language models and the need for reliable, consistent results in technical implementations. Further analysis of the sampling process reveals that the probabilities derived from the model contribute to this output randomness.
Despite setting a fixed seed and temperature to zero, GPT-4o exhibits subtle randomness in outputs, indicating that even the model's probabilities are not deterministic.
Determinism is vital in LLMs, as it ensures that the same input yields the same output, facilitating reproducible experiments and debugging for developers.
Variability in output from consistent prompts adds complexity for researchers and developers, blurring the line between genuine input adjustments and randomness from the model.
While creativity in LLMs like GPT-4o is often valued, it simultaneously complicates the need for consistency in scientific research and engineering tasks.
Read at towardsdatascience.com
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