Adventures in Learning Publicly: December 2024 Edition

AI Antics in the Modern Tech Landscape

Hey folks, I know I’m behind my usual Thursday publish time. Clearly, I need a better strategy when it comes to posting regularly! Bear with me as I get better at this. :)

This past two weeks, I've been diving deep into AI image generation. Specifically, I fine-tuned a pre-existing text-to-image diffusion model to recognize and generate images in my likeness using something called LoRA (Low-Rank Adaptation).

The process is about as straightforward as explaining calculus to my mom when you don’t know how to say “mathematics” in Chinese. First, you prepare your datasets (read: spend hours collecting selfies), then pre-process images (crop out those embarrassing background details), set up parameters (pray to the GPU gods), and kick off this whole fine-tuning training process where you... checks notes... intentionally add noise to perfectly good photos just to teach the computer how to fix them again.

After days of training, countless GPU hours, and probably enough electricity to power a s…