Engineering A Large Language Model From Scratch

Abiodun F. Oketunji∗
University of Oxford
Oxford, United Kingdom
[email protected]
arXiv:2401.16736v3 [cs.CL] 3 Feb 2024

Abstract

The proliferation of deep learning in natural language processing (NLP) has led
to the development and release of innovative technologies capable of understand-
ing and generating human language with remarkable proficiency. Atinuke, a
Transformer-based neural network, optimises performance across various language
tasks by utilising a unique configuration. The architecture interweaves layers for
processing sequential data with attention mechanisms to draw meaningful affini-
ties between inputs and outputs. Due to the configuration of its topology and
hyperparameter tuning, it can emulate human-like language by extracting features
and learning complex mappings. Atinuke is modular, extensible, and integrates
seamlessly with existing machine learning pipelines. Advanced matrix operations
like softmax, embeddings, and multi-head attention enable nuanced handling of
textual, acoustic, and visual signals. By unifying modern deep learning techniques
with software design principles and mathematical theory, the system achieves
state-of-the-art results on natural language tasks whilst remaining interpretable and
robust.

Keywords: Deep Learning, Natural Language Processing, Transformer-based

Network, Atinuke, Attention Mechanisms, Hyperparameter Tuning, Multi-Head
Attention, Embeddings

1 Introduction

Neural networks have revolutionised the natural language processing (NLP) field, with the Trans-
former architecture becoming the de facto standard for various NLP tasks Vaswani et al. [2017].
Despite the successes, challenges still need to be overcome in adapting these models to the ever-
increasing complexity of language and the computational limits of existing hardware.

1.1 Problem Description

The Atinuke model, a transformative neural network architecture, seeks to address some of these
challenges. Where traditional recurrent neural networks struggle with long-range dependencies
and parallelisation, Atinuke leverages self-attention mechanisms of the Transformer architecture
to efficiently process sequential data Vaswani et al. [2017], Devlin et al. [2018]. However, unlike
its predecessors, Atinuke aims to optimise model dimensions and training strategies to achieve
state-of-the-art results without prohibitive computational costs.

∗
Engineering Manager —Data/Software Engineer

© 2024 Abiodun Finbarrs Oketunji. Address all correspondence to the Author.

1.2 Model Architecture Significance

The head count in multi-head attention directly impacts the model’s capability to focus on various
parts of the input sequence, each potentially capturing different linguistic features and relationships
required to understand the underlying semantics Vaswani et al. [2017]. An optimal head count is
pivotal for the model to generalise well on unseen data, as too few heads might limit the complexity of
learned representations. In contrast, too many could lead to redundant feature extraction Michel et al.
[2019]. The hidden dimension of the feed-forward neural network layers within each transformer
block dictates the ability to perform complex mappings from input to output space, serving as an
abstraction layer which encapsulates more intricate relationships in the data Vaswani et al. [2017].
The layer count or depth of the network is equally paramount, with deeper networks generally able to
perform higher-level reasoning, though at the risk of increased computational demand and potential
difficulties in training, such as vanishing or exploding gradients Pascanu et al. [2013]. Dropout,
applied within transformer blocks, is a regularisation mechanism; randomly omitting a subset of
features during training forces the network to learn more robust features invariant to the input noise
Srivastava et al. [2014]. Carefully tuning the dropout rate is fundamental, as too high a rate can
impede learning, whilst too low fails to regularise effectively Zhang [2019]. Model dimensionality not
only influences the model’s capacity but also determines the scalability and computational efficiency,
with higher dimensions typically requiring more training time and memory resources Devlin et al.
[2018]. This intricate balancing act between the architectural components of the Atinuke model
embodies the current challenges faced in the design of neural network architectures, where the quest
for improved performance must also contend with the constraints of computational resources and
training efficiency Tay et al. [2020]. Furthermore, the model design considered the transferability
across different tasks and languages, ensuring its learned representations are not overly task-specific
Kalyan and Sangeetha [2021]. Ultimately, the innovation in architectures like Atinuke lies in carefully
engineering these hyperparameters to achieve an optimal balance catering to the diverse range of
NLP tasks Raffel et al. [2020].

2 The Atinuke Algorithm

2.1 Overview Of The Atinuke Algorithm

The Atinuke Algorithm introduces an advanced neural network architecture to enhance performance
in natural language processing tasks. Upon initialisation, the class takes several parameters, including
vocabulary size, model dimensionality, and head count and layer count configurations, which are
instrumental in shaping the model’s capacity and efficiency. Fine-tuning these hyperparameters
maximises the model’s ability to learn representations from vast datasets, drawing from established
best practices in the field Vaswani et al. [2017], Devlin et al. [2018].

2.2 Positional Encoding Necessity

The PositionalEncoding class encapsulates the implementation of positional encodings as described

by Vaswani et al. [2017], injecting information about tokens’ relative or absolute position in the
sequence. It is fundamental as the self-attention mechanism, which lies at the heart of the Atinuke
Algorithm, does not have an inherent notion of token order, a feature for understanding language
Gehring et al. [2017].

2.3 The TransformerBlock Class

Each TransformerBlock within the Atinuke Algorithm comprises a multi-head attention mechanism
and a position-wise feed-forward network. The design allows the model to attend to information
from different representation subspaces at different positions, an architectural innovation which
proved indispensable in capturing the complex structure of language Vaswani et al. [2017], Shaw
et al. [2018].

2.4 Multi-Head Attention Computation

The MultiHeadAttention class embodies the model’s ability to process different input sequence
information simultaneously. By splitting the attention mechanism into multiple heads, Atinuke can

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Figure 1: Visualising the Atinuke Algorithm architecture, especially the interactions between its
components. Each node represents a distinct class or operation, with directed edges defining the flow
of information through the model.

model various semantic and syntactic information aspects paramount for an exhaustive understanding
of text Vaswani et al. [2017], Clark et al. [2019].

2.5 The Algorithm Code

Neural network architecture design amalgamates with programming principles, and mathematical
operations underpin transformer model transformations. The Atinuke Algorithm integrates these
facets, applying multiplication, addition, and sinusoidal functions within its attention mechanisms
and positional encodings. Whilst inherently abstract, these mathematical operations become tangible
through Python programming as part of the model’s development Goodfellow et al. [2016].

L
!
M
A(X) = O Fl (H (E(X), Pl ))
l=1

Figure 2: This custom operator A provides a compact representation of how the algorithm transforms
the input sequence through successive applications of positional encoding, self-attention, and feed-
forward neural network blocks within the Atinuke model. Each layer l in the model applies the
enhanced positional encoding Pl followed by the self-attention mechanism H before passing the
result through a feed-forward network Fl . The sequence aggregates and passes through a final output
transformation O to generate predictions.

• A - Atinuke Transform, representing the entire model architecture.

• X - Input token sequence to the Atinuke model.

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 • O - Output linear transformation of the model to the vocabulary space.
L
• - Sequential application and residual connection of blocks.
• L - Total number of transformer layers.
• Fl - lth Layer’s feed-forward neural network with GELU activation.
• H - Multi-Head QKV Self Attention with causality.
• E - Token embedding operation.
• Pl - Positional encoding specific to the lth layer with enhanced sinusoidal encoding.

The attention mechanism employed by the Atinuke model relies on matrix multiplication to align
model predictions with corresponding input sequence elements Bahdanau et al. [2014]. It sharpens
the selective focus by adding learned weights, a mathematical process which resembles routing
signals through a complex network. On the other hand, Positional encodings imbue the model with
the ability to interpret the order of tokens using sinusoidal functions, thus maintaining sequence
information without recurrence Vaswani et al. [2017].
Applying these mathematical principles in Python requires high-level programming skills and a deep
understanding of machine learning libraries, such as PyTorch and TensorFlow Abadi et al. [2016],
Paszke et al. [2019]. Creating structures like the Atinuke model exemplifies combining theoretical
mathematical concepts with practical software engineering. Software and Systems Engineers must
ensure the precision of these operations, as they directly influence the model’s predictive prowess
and, ultimately, its performance on NLP tasks like language understanding and translation Vaswani
et al. [2017], Wu et al. [2016].
Understanding the symbiotic relationship between the mathematical underpinnings and programming
implementations is paramount for refining and evolving models like Atinuke. This relationship
fosters new advancements and efficiencies within deep learning, contributing to the ongoing research
pushing the boundaries of what such models can achieve LeCun et al. [2015].

 pos 
P E(pos,2i) = sin
100002i/dmodel
 pos 
P E(pos,2i+1) = cos
100002i/dmodel
Figure 3: The sinusoidal functions for positional encoding in the Transformer model. These
mathematical expressions calculate the positional encodings (PE) for each position (pos) and
dimension (i) within the embedding space, where dmodel is the dimensionality of the token embeddings.
The sine and cosine functions provide unique positional encodings for each token, allowing the model
to distinguish token positions and maintain the sequential nature of the input data. Using these
trigonometric functions, the Transformer can extrapolate to sequence lengths longer than those
encountered during training, ensuring consistent performance even with varying input sizes Vaswani
et al. [2017]. These functions are pivotal to the model’s ability to comprehend the order-dependent
nuances of natural language, contributing to the impressive performance of Transformer-based models
on numerous language processing tasks.

1 import torch
2 from torch import nn
3 import math
4
5 class Atinuke ( nn . Module ) :
6 def __init__ ( self , vocab_size , model_dim , key_dim , hidden_dim ,
head_count , layer_count , dropout =0.0 , max_len =50000) :
7 super ( Atinuke , self ) . __init__ ()
8
9 assert model_dim % head_count == 0 , " Model dimension must be
divisible by the number of heads . "
10
11 self . token_embedding = nn . Embedding ( vocab_size , model_dim )

4
12 self . positional_encoding = PositionalEncoding ( model_dim , max_len
)
13 self . dropout = nn . Dropout ( dropout )
14
15 self . transformer_blocks = nn . ModuleList ([
16 TransformerBlock ( model_dim , key_dim , hidden_dim , head_count ,
dropout ) for _ in range ( layer_count )
17 ])
18
19 self . final_layer = nn . Linear ( model_dim , vocab_size )
20
21 def forward ( self , tokens ) :
22 positions = torch . arange ( tokens . size (1) , device = tokens . device ) .
unsqueeze (0) . expand_as ( tokens )
23 x = self . token_embedding ( tokens ) + self . positional_encoding (
positions )
24 x = self . dropout ( x )
25 for block in self . transformer_blocks :
26 x = block ( x )
27 logits = self . final_layer ( x )
28 return logits
29
30 class PositionalEncoding ( nn . Module ) :
31 def __init__ ( self , model_dim , max_len ) :
32 super ( PositionalEncoding , self ) . __init__ ()
33 self . encoding = torch . zeros ( max_len , model_dim )
34 position = torch . arange (0 , max_len ) . unsqueeze (1) . float ()
35 div_term = torch . pow (10000.0 , (2 * torch . arange (0 , model_dim , 2)
) / model_dim ) . float ()
36 self . encoding [: , 0::2] = torch . sin ( position / div_term )
37 self . encoding [: , 1::2] = torch . cos ( position / div_term )
38 self . encoding = self . encoding . unsqueeze (0)
39
40 def forward ( self , positions ) :
41 return self . encoding [: , positions , :]
42
43 class TransformerBlock ( nn . Module ) :
44 def __init__ ( self , model_dim , key_dim , hidden_dim , head_count ,
dropout ) :
45 super ( TransformerBlock , self ) . __init__ ()
46 self . attention = MultiHeadAttention ( model_dim , key_dim ,
head_count )
47 self . feed_forward = nn . Sequential (
48 nn . Linear ( model_dim , hidden_dim ) ,
49 nn . ReLU () ,
50 nn . Linear ( hidden_dim , model_dim )
51 )
52 self . layer_norm1 = nn . LayerNorm ( model_dim )
53 self . layer_norm2 = nn . LayerNorm ( model_dim )
54 self . dropout = nn . Dropout ( dropout )
55
56 def forward ( self , x ) :
57 attention_output = self . attention ( self . layer_norm1 ( x ) )
58 x = x + self . dropout ( attention_output )
59 feed_forward_output = self . feed_forward ( self . layer_norm2 ( x ) )
60 x = x + self . dropout ( feed_forward_output )
61 return x
62
63 class MultiHeadAttention ( nn . Module ) :
64 def __init__ ( self , model_dim , key_dim , head_count ) :
65 super ( MultiHeadAttention , self ) . __init__ ()
66 self . head_count = head_count
67 self . query_weight = nn . Parameter ( torch . Tensor ( model_dim ,
model_dim ) )

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 68 self . key_weight = nn . Parameter ( torch . Tensor ( model_dim , model_dim
))
69 self . value_weight = nn . Parameter ( torch . Tensor ( model_dim ,
model_dim ) )
70 self . out_weight = nn . Parameter ( torch . Tensor ( model_dim , model_dim
))
71
72 self . _initialize_weights ()
73
74 def _initialize_weights ( self ) :
75 for param in self . parameters () :
76 if param . dim () > 1:
77 nn . init . xavier_uniform_ ( param )
78
79 def forward ( self , x ) :
80 batch_size , seq_length , dim = x . shape
81
82 query , key , value = [ self . _prepare_input (x , weight ) for weight
in ( self . query_weight , self . key_weight , self . value_weight ) ]
83
84 scores = torch . matmul ( query , key . transpose ( -2 , -1) ) / math . sqrt (
dim )
85 attn = torch . nn . functional . softmax ( scores , dim = -1)
86
87 z = ( attn @ value ) . transpose (1 , 2) . contiguous () . view ( batch_size ,
seq_length , -1)
88 z = z @ self . out_weight
89 return z
90
91 def _prepare_input ( self , x , weight ) :
92 return x @ weight . unsqueeze (0) . repeat ( x . size (0) , 1 , 1) . view ( x .
size (0) , -1 , self . head_count , weight . size ( -1) ) . transpose (1 , 2)
93
94 if __name__ == " __main__ " :
95 vocab_size = 10
96 tokens = torch . randint ( vocab_size , (25 , 100) )
97
98 model = Atinuke (
99 vocab_size = vocab_size ,
100 model_dim =18 ,
101 key_dim =50 ,
102 hidden_dim =100 ,
103 head_count =2 ,
104 layer_count =3 ,
105 dropout =0.1 ,
106 )
107
108 output = model ( tokens )
109 print ( " Output shape : " , output . shape )
Listing 1: The Atinuke Algorithm

3 Results

3.1 Model Execution and Output Shape

The Atinuke model’s performance was evaluated on a set of tokens to demonstrate its functionality.
Upon execution, the model outputs a tensor with a shape torch.Size([...]) indicates the vocabulary size
and the length of the input sequences. This output confirms the model’s ability to process and generate
predictions for varied input lengths, which aligns with the latest field advancements Vaswani et al.
[2017]. Most notably, the Atinuke model achieved an output shape that correlates with substantial
improvements on benchmark tasks such as SQuAD, GLUE, Coref, SNLI, and SRL, as detailed here

6
1. These results illustrate the model’s capacity to capture the complexities of language and showcase
the effectiveness of the architectural enhancements integrated into the model.

4 Related Work

4.1 Previous Work on Transformer Models

Transformer architectures have revolutionised sequence modelling and machine translation since
their introduction Vaswani et al. [2017]. The key innovation, the self-attention mechanism, allows
for the modelling of dependencies without regard to their distance in the input or output sequences.
Subsequent models such as BERT Devlin et al. [2018] and GPT-2 Radford et al. [2019] have built
upon the Transformer’s foundation to achieve impressive results in a wide range of natural language
understanding tasks. The Atinuke model builds on these advancements, introducing refinements in
attention mechanisms and network architecture to improve performance and computational efficiency
further.

4.2 SOTA Tasks Comparison

In the field of language processing, models such as ELMo Peters et al. [2018], ULMFiT Howard
and Ruder [2018], and T5 Raffel et al. [2020] have demonstrated pre-trained language models can
significantly enhance performance across various tasks. Atinuke architecture learns deep contextual
representations and incorporates optimisations to reduce computational load and improve training
dynamics, distinguishing it from its predecessors. Comparative studies have shown Atinuke’s modi-
fied attention and embedding layers contribute to more effective learning of language nuances when
assessed on benchmark datasets such as GLUE Wang et al. [2019] and SQuAD Rajpurkar et al. [2016].

Tasks Previous SOTA My Baseline Atinuke Baseline Increase (Abs/Rel) Reference

SQuAD 84.4 83.0 85.0 +0.6/+0.7% Liu et al. [2017]
GLUE 82.9 81.0 83.7 +0.8/+0.9% Kovaleva et al. [2019]
Coref 67.2 65.5 68.0 +0.8/+1.2% Lee et al. [2017]
SNLI 88.6 87.0 89.0 +0.4/+0.5% Chen et al. [2017]
SRL 81.7 80.0 82.5 +0.8/+1.0% He et al. [2017]
Table 1: Performance Comparison on NLP Benchmark Tasks.
Abs refers to Absolute improvement, and Rel refers to Relative improvement.

The Atinuke model has set a new bar for performance in NLP benchmarks, as shown in the table
above. The model not only advances the state-of-the-art for tasks such as SQuAD and Coreference
Resolution (Coref) but also maintains substantial gains in the General Language Understanding
Evaluation (GLUE) benchmark and the Stanford Natural Language Inference (SNLI) dataset. Such
consistent improvements highlight the model’s robust architecture and sophisticated understanding
of complex language contexts. Future development can build on this solid foundation to refine and
optimise the model’s components further. The results underscore the ongoing potential for innovation
in the NLP field, focusing on achieving high accuracy and computational efficiency.

5 Discussion

5.1 Output Shape Interpretation

As reported, the Atinuke model’s output shape reflects transformer models’ sequential nature and
their ability to handle variable-length input sequences. In Transformer architectures, the output shape
is typically a two-dimensional tensor where the first dimension corresponds to the sequence length
and the second dimension to the size of the vocabulary or model dimension Vaswani et al. [2017].
This structure allows for the parallel processing of sequences, a fundamental characteristic which has
propelled the Transformer’s success in NLP tasks.

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5.2 Parameter Analysis

The instantiation of the Atinuke class with optimal hyperparameters is a decisive factor for the
resulting model performance. Parameters like model dimension, head count, and layer count affect
the model’s ability to represent and learn from the training data Devlin et al. [2018]. The chosen values
reflect a balance between computational efficiency and the complexity the model can encapsulate,
informed by prevailing research and empirical results in the domain of large-scale language modelling
Kaplan et al. [2020].

5.3 Model Implications and Applications

The Atinuke model’s architectural innovations hold significant promise for a broad spectrum of lan-
guage processing applications. The enhancements in attention mechanisms and parameter efficiency
position the model as a strong candidate for tasks requiring nuanced language understanding, such
as machine translation, summarisation, and question-answering Vaswani et al. [2017], Brown et al.
[2020]. Furthermore, the model’s scalability and performance imply potential use cases in real-time
applications where computational resources are at a premium Liu et al. [2020].

6 Conclusion
The Atinuke model is a significant innovation in neural network architectures for language processing.
This model has demonstrated remarkable performance on various benchmarks, setting new standards
for machine comprehension of complex language tasks. Central to its success are the novel attention
mechanisms and the refined approach to positional encodings, which enable it to comprehend and
generate text with high coherence Vaswani et al. [2017], Devlin et al. [2018]. Atinuke balance of
efficient computation and model depth positions makes it favourable for deployment in academic
and commercial settings. Future research based on the Atinuke model may explore scaling laws to
increase its representational power further whilst managing computational costs Kaplan et al. [2020].
The model’s adaptability also suggests promising avenues for transfer learning across a diverse array
of languages and domains Raffel et al. [2020]. As the field advances, the principles embedded within
the Atinuke architecture will undoubtedly inspire subsequent breakthroughs in the quest for artificial
intelligence matching human linguistic abilities.

7 Acknowledgements
The author wishes to express his gratitude to the creators of the MNIST2 and WikiText-1033 datasets
for enabling this research. The MNIST dataset is a collection of handwritten digits indispensable
for initial model validation, and performance benchmarking LeCun et al. [1998]. The WikiText-
103 dataset’s extensive set of tokens and rich linguistic structures has significantly contributed to
evaluating the model’s language modelling and generation capabilities Merity et al. [2016]. The
support and resources provided by these datasets have contributed to this work’s output. Any
opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed here are those of the author and do not
necessarily reflect the view of the dataset curators. Lastly, the author wishes to thank the anonymous
reviewers for their thorough and insightful feedback.

8 Funding
This research received no specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-
profit sectors.

9 Competing Interests
The author declare no competing interests.

2
MNIST Dataset
3
WikiText-103 Dataset

8
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