How to Build Large Language Models from Scratch: A Step-by-Step Guide to GPT-2 Implementation and Optimization

Building Large Language Models from Scratch: A Practical Guide to the ToyLLM Project Introduction: Why Build LLMs from Scratch? In the rapidly evolving field of artificial intelligence, Large Language Models (LLMs) have become foundational components of modern technology. The ToyLLM project serves as an educational platform that demystifies transformer architectures through complete implementations of GPT-2 and industrial-grade optimizations. This guide explores three core values: End-to-end implementation of GPT-2 training/inference pipelines Production-ready optimizations like KV caching Cutting-edge inference acceleration techniques Architectural Deep Dive GPT-2 Implementation Built with Python 3.11+ using modular design principles: Full forward/backward propagation support Type-annotated code for readability …