[HN Gopher] FastAI.jl: FastAI for Julia
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FastAI.jl: FastAI for Julia
Author : dklend122
Score : 100 points
Date : 2021-07-27 18:03 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (forums.fast.ai)
(TXT) w3m dump (forums.fast.ai)
| losvedir wrote:
| Wasn't there a Swift version of FastAI, too? Are they trying to
| have libraries in multiple ecosystems, or did that one peter out?
| adamnemecek wrote:
| Swift for Tensorflow was cancelled.
| cbkeller wrote:
| A bit of googling turns up [1][2], but [2] doesn't seem to have
| much recent activity (presumably in turn due to Google ceasing
| active development of S4TF [3]
|
| [1] https://www.fast.ai/2019/03/06/fastai-swift/
|
| [2] https://github.com/fastai/swiftai
|
| [3] https://github.com/tensorflow/swift
| ellisv wrote:
| This is interesting to me but the motivation behind this is
| unclear. Since FastAI.jl uses Flux, and not PyTorch,
| functionality has to be reimplemented. FastAI.jl has vision
| support but no text support yet.
|
| What does this mean for the development of fastai?
|
| What is the timeline for FastAI.jl to achieve parity?
|
| When should I choose FastAI.jl vs fastai?
| NegatioN wrote:
| It does seem to actually be an unofficial implementation in
| Julia. So it shouldnt have any impact on the actual
| development?
|
| Im kinda wondering if Jeremy Howard has ok'ed using their name
| on a library that they're not in charge of? I didnt find a
| clear answer to that. Particularly troubling since it seems
| like the FluxML organization is behind this, not some random
| dude
| BadInformatics wrote:
| From TFA:
|
| > We'll also be hosting a Q&A session 02.08., 10PM UTC
| (03.08., 12AM CEST | 8AM AEST). Jeremy will be there, too.
| Meeting link will follow soon.
|
| My understanding is that he's at least been aware of this
| since early development (just over a year), so make of that
| what you will.
| NegatioN wrote:
| Well, that's great then! :) Guess i should have actually
| read the post instead of jumping to the github page...
| BadInformatics wrote:
| Having tried fastai for a "serious" research project and helped
| (just a bit) towards FastAI.jl development, here's my take:
|
| > motivation behind this is unclear.
|
| Julia currently has two main DL libraries. Flux, which is
| somewhere between PyTorch and (tf.)Keras abstraction wise, and
| Knet, which is a little lower level (think just below
| PyTorch/around where MXNet Gluon sits). Frameworks like fastai,
| PyTorch Lightning and Keras demonstrate that there's a desire
| for higher-level, more batteries included libraries. FastAI.jl
| is looking to fill that gap in Julia.
|
| > Since FastAI.jl uses Flux, and not PyTorch, functionality has
| to be reimplemented. FastAI.jl has vision support but no text
| support yet.
|
| This is correct. That said, FastAI.jl is not and does not plan
| to be a copy of the Python API (hence "inspired by"). One
| consequence of this is that integration with other libraries is
| much easier, e.g.
| https://github.com/chengchingwen/Transformers.jl for NLP tasks.
|
| > What is the timeline for FastAI.jl to achieve parity?
|
| > When should I choose FastAI.jl vs fastai?
|
| This depends on your use cases and how comfortable you are with
| a) Julia b) having to roll some of your own code. For the
| first, I'd recommend poking around with the language before as
| well as using the linked dev channel in TFA to get an informed
| opinion.
|
| FastAI.jl itself is composed of multiple constituent packages
| that can and are used independently, so there's also the option
| of mixing and matching. For example,
| https://github.com/lorenzoh/DataLoaders.jl is completely
| library agnostic.
| jstx1 wrote:
| > When should I choose FastAI.jl vs fastai?
|
| Unless you're following the course, you probably shouldn't use
| either.
| kyllo wrote:
| Why not? Honest question--I haven't used fastai myself but my
| understanding is it's just a high-level wrapper API for
| PyTorch. Any particular reason why you wouldn't want to use
| it outside of the course?
| NegatioN wrote:
| We use it for training some of the models we use in
| production environments serving millions of requests per
| day, so there's no reason to exclude it completely IMO. As
| you say, it's a wrapper for Pytorch with a few extras
| tacked on.
|
| With Pytorch you would either use pure torch, FastAI or
| something like Lightning most of the time. Unless you're
| using completely mainstream models such as the ones you
| could get from the Transformers library.
| dklend122 wrote:
| Note: This is a sanctioned port by the Julia community.
| cbkeller wrote:
| Looking forward to trying this out!
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