For a hot minute, gray was everywhere. Not just a little bit here and theregray dominated. Gray walls, gray furniture, gray kitchen cabinets, gray exteriors. It was the unofficial uniform of home design in the 2010s, with its cold yet modern vibe signaling minimalism, sophistication, and, well, the ability to stage a house for resale.But after years of grayscale everything, were collectively realizing it might be time to let this trend rest in peace. Its not that gray is inherently badits just been beaten to death like a song that goes viral on TikTok and then eventually gets hated by everyone. Lets talk about why this trend exploded, how it overran our homes (and lives), and whats next now that were all over it.Gray Took Over Everythingand We Let It HappenGray didnt just appear overnightit filled a vacuum left by the beige overload of the early 2000s. Millennials, raised in homes with yellowy beige carpets and walls, rejected those warm tones for something cooler and more modern. Gray offered an alternative that felt like a fresh start: sleek, clean, and refreshingly neutral. It was the perfect choice for a generation looking to distance itself from the outdated interiors of the past.Its rise was also deeply practical. Gray was calm and versatile, perfectly aligning with the minimalist aesthetic that dominated the 2010s. It offered a sense of peace in a chaotic world, and for millennials facing housing insecurity and constant economic stress, creating a serene home was a small victory. Gray wasnt just a colorit was a vibe, one that represented order in an otherwise messy reality.Real estate developers and landlords also saw the practicality of gray. For new builds and rental properties, it was a neutral, inoffensive choice that made spaces feel modern while appealing to as many people as possible. Add to that the influence of social media, where gray walls and monochromatic palettes became the hallmark of every trendy home makeover video, and suddenly, gray wasnt just popularit was unavoidable.But like every trend that gets oversaturated, gray lost its magic. Entire homes in varying shades of gray began to feel cold, lifeless, and repetitive. What was once sleek and modern became bland and uninspired, leaving people craving warmth, personality, and individuality. The shift away from gray marks a broader move toward more vibrant and dynamic interiorsspaces that finally feel alive.The Problem With Gray: We Overdid ItThe thing about gray is that, like any good trend, it starts out fresh and exciting. But when everything is gray, it starts to feel sterile, repetitive, and kind of lifeless. What started as modern and clean quickly spiraled into cold and depressing.Then theres the issue of personality. The beauty of a neutral is that its supposed to complement bold accents or allow you to add your own flair. But what ended up happening is that people just stopped adding personality altogether. They leaned into the safe choice, and to be honest, theres only so much you can do with gray walls, gray flooring, and gray furniture before it all blends together into one dull blob of grayscale monotony.And lets talk about how this trend wasnt even a choice for a lot of people. Landlords slapped gray paint on rental walls because it was cheap and easy, leaving tenants stuck with lifeless spaces they werent allowed to change. New homeowners, meanwhile, were so drained from the expense of buying a house (because, surprise, buying a house is extremely expensive) that repainting gray interiors wasnt exactly a top priority. Gray became less of a trend and more of a trap.The Emotional Toll of Living in Gray SpacesTheres also something deeper to this shift. Millennials, the generation who popularized gray, are also the generation that got hit with housing crises, skyrocketing costs of living, and an endless sense of instability. Is it any wonder that a neutral like graya color that doesnt ask too much or stand out too loudlybecame the default? Gray doesnt take up space. Its non-threatening. But its also emotionally flat.Living in gray-heavy spaces can feel uninspiring at best, suffocating at worst. During the pandemic, when many of us were stuck at home 24/7, those blank gray walls stopped feeling sleek and modern. Instead, they felt like cages. People started craving warmth, vibrancy, and a sense of lifethings gray cant exactly deliver.The Signs of a Shift: Bold and Vibrant Trends Take OverSo, if were done with gray, whats next? Thankfully, interior design is moving in a brighter, bolder direction. Here are a few trends that are leaving millennial gray in the dust:1. Boho Chic:This trend is all about earthy tones, natural textures, and an eclectic mix of patterns. Think warm terracotta, soft sage greens, woven baskets, and rugs with bold designs. It feels inviting and lived-in, the opposite of the sterile perfection of gray interiors.2. Mediterranean Vibes:Earthy whites, sun-drenched yellows, deep blues, and rustic wood accents are making their way into homes. This trend brings warmth, elegance, and a timeless quality that gray just cant match. Bonus: it makes you feel like youre vacationing in Greece.3. Jewel Tones:Bold jewel-inspired hues are having a major moment. From emerald green walls to amethyst purple sofas, people are embracing color in a big way. If youre ready to embrace boldness, jewel tones are rich, luxurious, and full of personality.4. Statement Walls:Gray walls are out; patterned wallpapers, murals, and accent walls are in. Adding texture and visual interest to a space brings personality and vibrancy, something gray could never quite pull off.Why These Trends Feel Right for Right NowThe death of millennial gray isnt solely about aestheticsits a reflection of bigger cultural shifts. After years of playing it safe, people are ready to embrace individuality and creativity. The pandemic taught us that our homes need to be more than just pretty; they need to feel like places we actually want to live in. Warm colors, bold designs, and eclectic touches bring life to a space in a way gray never could.And lets not forget: this is also about reclaiming some sense of joy. Millennials have spent the better part of their adult lives stuck in economic uncertainty. Maybe thats why gray felt right for a whileit didnt make any bold promises. But now? Were ready for something that sparks a little happiness.How to Move On From Gray (Without Losing Your Mind)If youre staring at gray walls and thinking, Okay, what now?dont panic. Transitioning away from gray doesnt have to be overwhelming or expensive. Heres how to start:Start Small: Add color through accents like pillows, rugs, or artwork. You dont have to repaint your entire home overnight.Focus on Key Areas: Pick one room or one wall to revamp. A bold accent wall or a colorful piece of furniture can instantly shift the vibe.Layer in Warmth: Incorporate natural materials like wood, rattan, or woven textiles to add warmth and texture.Experiment: Try a peel-and-stick wallpaper or a removable decal for a low-commitment pop of personality.For renters, small changes like colorful curtains or vibrant bedding can make a big difference. And if your landlord is cool with it, ask about painting one accent wallit might just convince them to rethink their gray obsession too.Grays Legacyand Whats NextSo, will gray ever really go away? Probably not. Its neutral, its functional, and for a lot of people, its still a safe choice. But its dominance as the color of the decade is definitely over. Gray will stick around in smaller dosesas a backdrop for bolder designs or paired with richer tonesbut its no longer the main event.The future of home design is looking a lot more colorful, a lot more personalized, and, honestly, a lot more fun. So lets raise a glass to millennial gray: you had your moment, but now its time to make room for something brighter. And remember, if youre still surrounded by gray, theres no shame in taking your time to switch it up. Just know that when you do, your home might finally feel less like a catalog and more like, well, you.The post Its Time To Retire Millennial Grey Why The Neutral Interior Color Desperately Needs To Go first appeared on Yanko Design.

After losing out on a job, Erica Hobbs booked a 24-day trip to Japan.The November vacation was planned last minute, so she ended up traveling solo.Looking back, she would have pre-booked transportation and opted to stay in more hostels to make friends.In November, after three months of interviews, I lost out on a job and decided it was time for a travel break. I set out on a three-and-a-half-week trip to Japan.The timing worked out the favorable dollar-to-yen exchange rate, mild weather, and vibrant autumn foliage made it a great time to visit.With little time to find a travel companion, I embraced the freedom of solo travel and the ability to make plans on a whim. And since I'd traveled on my own before, I thought I could wing it. This trip to Japan proved to be more difficult than expected.My trip included exploring the "golden triangle" of Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka, with day trips to nearby destinations like Nikko, Mount Fuji, Nara, and Himeji. It also included visits to Hiroshima and Miyajima Island, and a week in central Japan. The trip cost about $3,400, not including the airfare, which I paid for with credit card points. As a cost-conscious backpacker, I stayed in pod hotels or hostels and mostly ate street food, convenience store fare, or noodles at ramen shops.My biggest expense was accommodation, which totaled more than $915 for 24 nights. On-the-ground transportation added up as well. While local trains were fairly inexpensive, tickets for the Shinkansen bullet train were costly. My ride from Tokyo to Toyama was the most expensive at about $100, Hiroshima to Osaka was about $70, and Osaka to Tokyo was about $90.A few indulgences included attending a kimono tea ceremony, a Kobe steak dinner, and visits to a handful of themed cafs.While I loved the trip, here are three things I would have done differently.1. More planning before the tripMy pre-trip research focused mainly on sites and activities, not the logistics. I didn't book anything in advance, aside from my first few days in Tokyo. This led to a chaotic and inefficient trip full of missed trains, lost opportunities, and unnecessary stress.I had read that Japan was popular in autumn, but it was busier than I expected, and difficult to find last-minute budget accommodation. Many of the popular attractions, including Tokyo's Ghibli Museum and Ninja Tokyo restaurant, had been booked in advance. Other places throughout the country, including Osaka's Nintendo Museum, and ryokans traditional Japanese homestays everywhere, also booked up quickly.I did get lucky with the tea ceremony a plus of solo traveling but I wish I'd pre-booked the ones I missed out on.I also would have booked accommodation ahead of time on sites with a free cancellation policy. This would have allowed me to secure lodging while also offering the flexibility to change plans.For transportation, I would have secured my IC card when I arrived at the airport. These cards which include Suica, PASMO, and Icoca are prepaid and allow easy travel among public transportation systems in big cities. After a 13-hour flight, I rushed to get to my hotel. But getting one of these cards later was harder than I expected they were only available in the larger train stations and not consistently. The author and a group of friends she met at a hostel explored Miyajima Island. Erica Hobbs 2. Opted for hostels instead of capsule hotelsMany people think solo travel is about doing things alone, but one of my favorite parts is the new people you meet along the way. Hostels are usually good for being social, and I thought I'd have the same luck in capsule hotels. Instead, I found the pod hotels though delightfully calm and spa-like to be much less social. There were also a lot of local travelers staying at these who didn't speak English.However, I made friends immediately at the hostels I stayed in. In Hiroshima, seven of us spent the day exploring Miyajima Island together, and I climbed a mountain I never would have visted alone. Had I started my trip in hostels, I would have made friends to travel with earlier on. The author would have enjoyed more time in Nikko to explore temples and shrines. Erica Hobbs 3. Spent more time in Nikko and OsakaAbout 90 miles north of Tokyo, Nikko is a popular day trip, but I wish I had dedicated two full days to exploring the town properly. It's known for both its elaborate shrines and temples and beautiful mountain scenery. When I visited in November, the sites closed at 4 p.m., and things started to get dark not long after, which meant there was a limited window to explore everything Nikko had to offer.The 126-acre Tokugawa shrine and temple complex which became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1999 is less than 10 miles from Lake Chuzenji, where the Mount Nantai climb begins, but traveling from one to the other can take an hour. I could have happily wandered the complex especially its famous Toshogu Shrine for an entire day.I also wish I'd had a full day to explore the beautiful lake, waterfalls, and hiking opportunities around the mountain. My single day there felt rushed and was limited to just the highlights. The author wanted more time to explore Osaka. Erica Hobbs I also wish I had spent more time in Osaka. Since it is primarily known for its food, I thought two days would be enough, but it was the non-foodie parts that were my favorites and what I wish I had more time for.Its Dontonbori area was full of lights and people with a palpable energy I liked being a part of. I enjoyed spending a half-day at Osaka Castle, but with more time I would have visited the Osaka Museum of Housing & Living and the Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan, which travelers I met along the way raved about. I also would have flown home directly from Osaka, which would have saved me a half day and a $90 bullet train fare.

After being a teacher for eight years, I quit my job. At age 30, I realized I couldn't keep walking into class with anxiety about what I was going to find I decided to become a ski instructor, where I can still use my teaching skills. After eight years in the classroom, I turned in my teaching badge and picked up a ski pass. Turning 30, I began to look at my life and question if I wanted to stay in the teaching profession for the long haul. With no desire to go the administrative route to becoming a principal, the thought of paying for graduate school for nothing more than a pay increase left me feeling like I was at the end of the teaching career road. Like many other educators, I was recognized for my teaching skills with more work, difficult kids, and parents treating me more like their kid's personal assistant than a teacher. I'd walk into my class every morning with slight anxiety about angry emails from parents demanding study guides and questioning project rubrics. Feeling burned out and broke, I decided to abandon the classroom. Leaving teaching wasn't just a career shift but a decision to reclaim joy and rediscover purpose in a new way.I decided to use my teaching skills in a new environmentUnsure of my next career move, I became a ski instructor. A job where I can use my teaching skills in a new environment. As a ski instructor, I connect with kids as they learn new skills and see the joy on their faces when they finally master a steep hill. Seeing kids light up with learning is long gone from teaching as kids simply want to know, "Will this be on the test?" and adjust their memorization accordingly.While helping young children with ski clothes and getting their boots clipped into their skis can be tiresome, it is nowhere near the frustration I felt using outdated technology in the classroom on spotty internet. I no longer spend my days trying to help kids log into various platforms and troubleshoot computer issues but instead show them how to navigate the slopes and find their self-confidence.I miss my colleaguesWhile I miss colleagues and the feeling of belonging to school, the ski industry is a tight-knit community filled with people looking to share the joy of skiing. The ski instructing industry is filled with easily available resources through training, workshops, and mentorship. I feel equipped with a variety of resources to do my job. This was a stark contrast to the classroom days when I was making do with what I had. I taught without textbooks and was left to find my own resources online. While administrative staff always supported me in the classroom, they were just as overwhelmed and under-resourced as I was and could only do so much.A bad ski day is still a good dayTeaching kids to ski comes with its own rough days, like when a kid doesn't quite make it to the bathroom in time, or the temperatures hit the single digits. I'm exhausted at the end of the ski season and need a good month to recover, but even a rough day on the ski hill fails compared to an average week in the classroom. My mental health is better; I'm outside and active. I still get to connect with kids and see them grow. I get to walk alongside kids as they conquer their fear of skiing down the big hill for the first time or riding the ski lift. Parents respect and appreciate my evaluations of the kids' progress. They accept my remarks on their skills and whether they are ready for the next level.Every August, when I see the back-to-school supplies roll out in stores, a piece of my heart misses the classroom and the coworkers I had. But my life is healthier now, and I'm reminded about the parts I loved most about teaching that I wasn't getting to do. But on the ski hill, my passion for teaching continues. I don't know if I will ever step back into the classroom or how long I will call the wide-open ski slopes my office. But for now, I will be holding my lessons among the rocky mountains, where the scent of fresh pine wafts through the air as I guide my students down the mountain.

submitted by /u/lipcrib [link] [comments]

A few renders and the original concept art submitted by /u/GravePencil1441 [link] [comments]

Lost Castle 2 doesnt offer a traditional skill tree or character level-up system, but it introduces a creative approach to obtaining permanent skills and buffs through the Camp Upgrade feature. With this system, you unlock ongoing enhancements that make your character stronger. To maximize Lost Castle 2s replayability and access end-game content more easily, youll need to master these Camp Upgrades and prioritize unlocking them all.

Roguelike gaming has become all the rage in the indie scene, with developers making the most of recycled assets to let players enjoy a great time with different level layouts in each run. This makes it important for roguelike games to keep players engaged instead of losing their attention or frustrating them with boring and repetitive content.

Microbrands in the watch world often capture attention by blending accessibility, quality, and striking designs. Montoir, a Chicago-based brand with Swiss-made credentials, entered the scene in late 2023 with its first dive watch. It was a standout debuta stylish, robust timepiece with a Sellita automatic movement and serious 200m water resistance. Now, Montoir is back with the MWMOD-01 V2 Dive Watch, offering the same successful formula with an exciting twist: bold new colors.Dive watches have a storied legacy, but Montoir takes that history and redefines it with precision and craftsmanship. The exterior is the definition of a modern classic. Crafted from 316L stainless steel, it combines various finisheshorizontal brushing, mirror polishing, and a lightly blasted dialfor a sophisticated and versatile aesthetic. Under the minimal-functional exterior is the customized Sellita SW200-1 Swiss automatic movementa hallmark of reliability. Montoir has fine-tuned the movement to a no-date configuration, creating a clean, distraction-free dial. The 38-hour power reserve and robust build ensure its as functional as it is stylish.Designer: MontoirClick Here to Buy Now: $375 $750 (50% off). Hurry, only 3/139 left! Raised over $62,000. Only 72-hours left.The new collection boasts dial options in Mint, Salmon, Cool Grey, and Green, alongside existing hues like Polar White, Black, and Blue. These colors are complemented by subtle refinements to the design, ensuring that each variant feels like more than just a palette swap. A green bezel insert paired with the green dial is particularly eye-catching, making it the standout piece of the collection. For the other colors, black bezels maintain a timeless, understated appeal.The new colors arent just cosmeticthey reflect Montoirs effort to create a timepiece that fits seamlessly into anyones wardrobe. The Salmon dial, for example, exudes vintage warmth, while the Cool Grey is a masterclass in understated elegance. Paired with Montoirs combination of brushed and polished finishes, every variant tells its own story while staying true to the brands DNA.At 40.5mm in diameter and just under 12mm in height, the stainless steel case maintains the same balanced proportions as its predecessor. The brushed finish with polished accents gives it a versatile aestheticequally at home underwater or at a casual dinner. The unidirectional bezel with a detailed 60-minute scale ensures functionality for diving enthusiasts, while a double-domed sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coatings keeps the dial legible under all conditions. The solid caseback, featuring an embossed diving helmet, adds a distinctive touch. Inside, the MWMOD-01 V2 draws its power from the Sellita SW200-1 automatic movement. This Swiss-made workhorse, a reliable alternative to the ETA 2824-2, offers a 38-hour power reserve and operates at a smooth 28,800 vibrations per hour. While its a proven performer, Montoirs choice to omit a date complication keeps the dial refreshingly clean and focused on legibility.Speaking of the dial, the new lightly sandblasted matte finish adds depth and texture. The oversized indices, coated in Super-LumiNova BGW9, glow brightly in low-light conditions, as do the hour and minute hands. Depending on the color variant, youve got yourself a wonderful contrast between the hands and the watch face. The lighter face shades opt for black hands, making them visible at a glance, while the richer watch faces come with polished chrome-like hands that glimmer in the light, instantly catching your eye.The watches come equipped with a 20mm tropic-style strap made from recycled FKM rubber. The straps quick-release system makes swapping bands effortless, adding to the watchs versatility. The rubber strap means this is truly a bonafide diver watch, designed to easily take on your diving adventures as a fish takes to water. The watchs rated for 200m or 20ATM of water resistance too. For those drawn to value-driven watches, the Montoir MWMOD-01 V2 is a compelling option. With Kickstarter pricing starting at $375 for early backers (or $450 after the initial 48-hour window), the watch offers a lot of bang for the buck. For a Swiss-made dive watch with professional-grade specs, the final retail price of $750 still represents strong value.This second installment from Montoir refines everything the company got right with its first series, building on it withfresh aesthetics and thoughtful design tweaks. Whether youre an experienced connoisseur or a first-time buyer looking for a robust, stylish diver, the MWMOD-01 V2 is a worthy contender for your collection especially given its Swiss-made movement at an authentic, non-marked-up price tag.Click Here to Buy Now: $375 $750 (50% off). Hurry, only 3/139 left! Raised over $62,000. Only 72-hours left.The post Never Pay A Brand Markup Again: Montoirs V2 Dive Watch Delivers Swiss-Made Luxury On A Budget first appeared on Yanko Design.

Open Source LLM development is going through great change through fully reproducing and open-sourcing DeepSeek-R1, including training data, scripts, etc. Hosted on Hugging Faces platform, this ambitious project is designed to replicate and enhance the R1 pipeline. It emphasizes collaboration, transparency, and accessibility, enabling researchers and developers worldwide to build on DeepSeek-R1s foundational work.What is Open R1?Open R1 aims to recreate the DeepSeek-R1 pipeline, an advanced system renowned for its synthetic data generation, reasoning, and reinforcement learning capabilities. This open-source project provides the tools and resources necessary to reproduce the pipelines functionalities. The Hugging Face repository will include scripts for training models, evaluating benchmarks, and generating synthetic datasets.The initiative simplifies the otherwise complex model training and evaluation processes through clear documentation and modular design. By focusing on reproducibility, the Open R1 project invites developers to test, refine, and expand upon its core components.Key Features of the Open R1 FrameworkTraining and Fine-Tuning Models: Open R1 includes scripts for fine-tuning models using techniques like Supervised Fine-Tuning (SFT). These scripts are compatible with powerful hardware setups, such as clusters of H100 GPUs, to achieve optimal performance. Fine-tuned models are evaluated on R1 benchmarks to validate their performance.Synthetic Data Generation: The project incorporates tools like Distilabel to generate high-quality synthetic datasets. This enables training models that excel in mathematical reasoning and code generation tasks.Evaluation: With a specialized evaluation pipeline, Open R1 ensures robust benchmarking against predefined tasks. This provides the effectiveness of models developed using the platform and facilitates improvements based on real-world feedback.Pipeline Modularity: The projects modular design allows researchers to focus on specific components, such as data curation, training, or evaluation. This segmented approach enhances flexibility and encourages community-driven development.Steps in the Open R1 Development ProcessThe project roadmap, outlined in its documentation, highlights three key steps:Replication of R1-Distill Models: This involves distilling a high-quality corpus from the original DeepSeek-R1 models. The focus is on creating a robust dataset for further training.Development of Pure Reinforcement Learning Pipelines: The next step is to build RL pipelines that emulate DeepSeeks R1-Zero system. This phase emphasizes the creation of large-scale datasets tailored to advanced reasoning and code-based tasks.End-to-End Model Development: The final step demonstrates the pipelines capability to transform a base model into an RL-tuned model using multi-stage training processes.The Open R1 framework is primarily built in Python, with supporting scripts in Shell and Makefile. Users are encouraged to set up their environments using tools like Conda and install dependencies such as PyTorch and vLLM. The repository provides detailed instructions for configuring systems, including multi-GPU setups, to optimize the pipelines performance.In conclusion, the Open R1 initiative, which offers a fully open reproduction of DeepSeek-R1, will establish the open-source LLM production space at par with large corporations. Since the model capabilities are comparable to those of the biggest proprietary models available, this can be a big win for the open-source community. Also, the projects emphasis on accessibility ensures that researchers and institutions can contribute to and benefit from this work regardless of their resources. To explore the project further, visit its repository on Hugging Faces GitHub.Sources:Also,dont forget to follow us onTwitter and join ourTelegram Channel andLinkedIn Group. Dont Forget to join our70k+ ML SubReddit. Asif RazzaqAsif Razzaq is the CEO of Marktechpost Media Inc.. As a visionary entrepreneur and engineer, Asif is committed to harnessing the potential of Artificial Intelligence for social good. His most recent endeavor is the launch of an Artificial Intelligence Media Platform, Marktechpost, which stands out for its in-depth coverage of machine learning and deep learning news that is both technically sound and easily understandable by a wide audience. The platform boasts of over 2 million monthly views, illustrating its popularity among audiences. Meet 'Height':The only autonomous project management tool (Sponsored)

Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) models utilize a router to allocate tokens to specific expert modules, activating only a subset of parameters, often leading to superior efficiency and performance compared to dense models. In these models, a large feed-forward network is divided into smaller expert networks, with the routertypically an MLP classifierdetermining which expert processes each input. However, a key issue arises from the routers separation from the experts execution. Without direct knowledge of the experts capabilities, the routers assignments are predictions without labels. Misassignments can hinder expert performance, requiring expert adaptation or iterative router improvement, resulting in inefficiencies during training.Researchers from Renmin University of China, Tencent, and Southeast University have introduced Autonomy-of-Experts (AoE), a new MoE paradigm where experts independently decide whether to process inputs. This approach leverages each experts awareness of its ability to handle tokens, reflected in the scale of its internal activations. In AoE, experts calculate internal activations for all inputs, and only the top-ranked ones, based on activation norms, proceed with further processing, eliminating the need for routers. The overhead from caching unused activations is reduced using low-rank weight factorization. With up to 4 billion parameters, pre-trained AoE models outperform traditional MoE models in efficiency and downstream tasks.The study examines sparse MoE models, where each feed-forward network (FFN) module functions as an expert. Unlike dense MoE models, which utilize all parameters, sparse MoE models improve efficiency by activating only the most relevant experts for specific inputs. These models rely on a router to assign inputs to the appropriate experts, typically using a token choosing Top-K experts approach. A key challenge is maintaining balanced expert utilization, as routers often overuse certain experts, leading to inefficiencies. To address this, load-balancing mechanisms ensure a more equitable distribution of tasks among experts by incorporating auxiliary losses, thereby enhancing overall efficiency.The AoE is a method where experts independently determine their selection based on internal activation norms, eliminating the need for explicit routing mechanisms. Initial experiments revealed that the scale of activation norms at certain computational points reflects an experts capability to process inputs effectively. AoE builds on this insight by ranking experts based on the L2 norms of compressed activations, selecting the top-performing ones for computation. By factorizing weight matrices and caching low-dimensional activations, AoE significantly reduces computational and memory overhead while maintaining high efficiency, addressing limitations in traditional MoE frameworks.The research compares the AoE framework to traditional MoE models through experiments on smaller pre-trained language models. Using a 12-layer model with 732 million parameters and eight experts per layer, trained on 100 billion tokens, the findings highlight that AoE performs better than MoE in both downstream tasks and training efficiency. It shows that the best performance is achieved when the reduced dimension is about one-third of the models overall dimension. AoE enhances load balancing and expert utilization across layers, leading to better generalization and efficiency when combined with alternative expert selection methods.In conclusion, AoE is a MoE framework designed to overcome a key limitation in traditional MoE models: separating the routers decisions and the experts execution, often resulting in inefficient expert selection and suboptimal learning. In AoE, experts autonomously select themselves based on their internal activation scales, eliminating the need for routers. This process involves pre-computing activations and ranking experts by their activation norms, allowing only top-ranking experts to proceed. Efficiency is enhanced through low-rank weight factorization. Pre-trained language models using AoE outperform conventional MoE models, showcasing improved expert selection and overall learning efficiency.Check out the Paper. All credit for this research goes to the researchers of this project. Also,dont forget to follow us onTwitter and join ourTelegram Channel andLinkedIn Group. Dont Forget to join our70k+ ML SubReddit. [Recommended Read] Nebius AI Studio expands with vision models, new language models, embeddings and LoRA (Promoted)The post Autonomy-of-Experts (AoE): A Router-Free Paradigm for Efficient and Adaptive Mixture-of-Experts Models appeared first on MarkTechPost.