by Team PyTorch

women dancing with fire

The 2024 PyTorch Conference in San Francisco gathered nearly 1,500 AI researchers, developers, and enthusiasts. Over two days, the event featured engaging discussions, insightful keynotes, and hands-on sessions focused on artificial intelligence (AI) and advancements in PyTorch, the leading open-source machine learning framework. Attendees delved into the future of generative AI, Large Language Models (LLMs), and the crucial role open-source technology plays in driving AI innovation. Here’s a recap of the key themes, highlights, and major takeaways from this year’s conference.

Key Themes of the PyTorch Conference 2024

Three core themes emerged throughout the conference:

  1. Generative AI and LLMs: Many sessions focused on how PyTorch continues to evolve as a primary framework for Large Language Models and Generative AI applications. From scaling these models to optimizing their performance on various hardware platforms, the conference showcased the ongoing advancements and challenges in LLM architecture.
  2. Democratizing AI Through Open Source: One of the recurring themes was the importance of open source tools and communities in shaping the future of AI. PyTorch is committed to inclusivity, ease of use, and accessibility to developers of all levels, with a focus on bringing AI to an even larger global audience.
  3. Distributed and Edge Computing: Distributed computing and edge deployment appeared in many discussions, highlighting how PyTorch is being used to drive AI to the edge. The focus on edge accelerators, scalable training, and inference showcased how PyTorch enables the deployment of powerful models across diverse environments, from the cloud to on-device applications.

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Watch the Sessions from PyTorch Conference

The PyTorch Conference featured keynote sessions from top AI leaders and interesting lightning talks. You can view all of the conference sessions on our YouTube channel.

PyTorch Conference Startup Showcase

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New this year, the Startup Showcase was an exciting addition to the PyTorch Conference. Featuring early-stage founders pitching their AI startups to a panel of top venture capitalists, this event showcased the next generation of AI-driven innovation. The finalists for the inaugural PyTorch Conference Startup Showcase included Remix Inc., Cartesia, OpenBabylon, Remyx AI, A2 Labs, Inc., QuicSnap, Iso AI, CTGT, and Creao.ai, representing some of the most innovative AI/ML startups in the industry. Attendees got a front-row seat to see cutting-edge AI startups in action, while top VCs from the AI industry evaluated the pitches.

Congratulations to the PyTorch Conference Startup Showcase winner, CTGT! Deep learning can be opaque and biased, which limits its potential in crucial areas like healthcare and finance. CTGT is changing the game by enhancing data lineage in LLMs and cutting hallucinations. They’re empowering companies to create customized models using 500x less compute.

View the Startup Showcase

Mini-Summits

The DL Compiler Mini-Summit offered attendees a deep dive into the advances in deep learning (DL) compilers that are transforming AI workloads.

View the DL Compiler Mini-Summit

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The Fine-Tuning Mini-Summit brought together a thriving community of researchers, developers, practitioners and hobbyists which focuses on topics ranging from memory efficiency, parameter-efficient fine-tuning and quantization to performance at scale and reproducible evaluations.

View the Fine-Tuning Mini-Summit

Major Takeaways from the PyTorch Conference 2024

Matt giving his keynote

  1. LLMs are Here to Stay: were a focal point of the event, reaffirming their pivotal role in the future of AI. As these models continue to scale, PyTorch remains the preferred framework for developing, training, and deploying them across various platforms and industries.
  2. Open Source Drives Innovation: A key takeaway from the conference was that open-source tools like PyTorch are vital for democratizing AI. This community-driven approach accelerates innovation, enabling researchers and developers globally to collaborate and contribute to faster advancements and more accessible AI technologies.
  3. Ethics and Sustainability Matter: The focus on ethical AI development was a significant takeaway. Talks on the inclusivity of computer vision models, the environmental impacts of AI infrastructure, and the need for transparent, unbiased AI models highlighted the growing importance of ethical considerations in the future of AI.
  4. PyTorch Expands Beyond the Cloud: With several sessions dedicated to edge AI and distributed computing, the conference showcased how PyTorch is expanding beyond cloud-based applications into edge devices and diverse computing environments. This shift is crucial as AI advances into areas like autonomous vehicles, mobile applications, and IoT devices.

Thank You to Our Sponsors

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Sponsor logos

We would like to thank each of the sponsors that made the PyTorch Conference 2024 possible. These include:

Diamond Sponsors:

  • AMD
  • Cloud Native Computing Foundation
  • IBM
  • Intel – PyTorch
  • Lightning.ai
  • Meta – PyTorch

Platinum Sponsors:

  • Arm
  • Google
  • Lambda Labs
  • Nvidia

Silver Sponsors:

  • Anyscale – PyTorch
  • Baseten
  • Chainguard
  • Databricks
  • Fal
  • FuriosaAi
  • HPE
  • Jane Street
  • Microsoft – PyTorch
  • MinIO
  • Outerbounds
  • Together.AI

Bronze Sponsors:

  • d-Matrix
  • MemVerge
  • Perforated AI
  • Quansight
  • Rotational Labs
  • ScaleGenAI

Special Event Sponsors:

  • PyTorch Flare Party: Hugging Face
  • Startup Showcase: Mayfield
  • Diversity Scholarship: AWS
  • Women and Non-Binary in PyTorch Lunch: Google
  • Happy Hour Reception: Lightning.AI

Thank you for your continued support in advancing the PyTorch ecosystem and helping to shape the future of AI!

Save the Date

See you next year for the PyTorch Conference in San Francisco at the Palace of Fine Arts from October 22-23, 2025.