According to the NVIDIA blog, NVIDIA has unveiled an innovative approach to deploying fine-tuned AI models through the NVIDIA NIM platform. This innovative solution is designed to enhance enterprise-generated AI applications by providing pre-built, performance-optimized inference microservices.
Improved AI model deployment
For organizations leveraging AI-driven models with domain-specific data, NVIDIA NIM provides a streamlined process for creating and deploying fine-tuned models. This capability is critical to efficiently delivering value in an enterprise environment. The platform supports seamless deployment of custom models through Parameter Efficient Fine-Tuning (PEFT) and other methods such as continuous pre-training and supervised fine-tuning (SFT).
NVIDIA NIM stands out in that it facilitates a single-step model deployment process by automatically building tuned models and a GPU-optimized TensorRT-LLM inference engine. This reduces the complexity and time associated with updating inference software configuration to accommodate new model weights.
Prerequisites for deployment
To utilize NVIDIA NIM, organizations must have at least 80 GB of GPU memory and git-lfs
equipment. You will also need an NGC API key to import and deploy NIM microservices within this environment. Users can access it through the NVIDIA Developer Program or a 90-day NVIDIA AI Enterprise license.
Optimized performance profile
NIM provides two performance profiles for creating local inference engines: latency-centric and throughput-centric. These profiles are selected based on your model and hardware configuration to ensure optimal performance. The platform supports the creation of locally built and optimized TensorRT-LLM inference engines, allowing rapid deployment of custom models such as NVIDIA OpenMath2-Llama3.1-8B.
Integration and Interaction
Once model weights are collected, users can deploy the NIM microservice using simple Docker commands. This process is enhanced by specifying model profiles to tailor the deployment to specific performance requirements. Interaction with the deployed model can be achieved through Python and leverages the OpenAI library to perform inference tasks.
conclusion
NVIDIA NIM is paving the way for faster, more efficient AI inference by facilitating deployment of fine-tuned models with a high-performance inference engine. Whether using PEFT or SFT, NIM’s optimized deployment capabilities open up new possibilities for AI applications across a variety of industries.
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