392 karma · joined December 25, 2015
A few clarifications:
1. Baselines - We didn't compare to torch.compile because as of PyTorch 2.7, torch.compile doesn't support the MPS backend, and we ran into some issues on many of the problems when using it. GitHub issue: https://github.com/pytorch/pytorch/issues/150121. Once it's supported, it will be the obvious baseline.
2. Methodology - We followed KernelBench’s protocol to establish a baseline on Metal, adding more correctness checks. Warmup and synchronization were done. We recognize the limitations here and are expanding the validation suite.
3. Optimizations - Right now most of the optimizations are fusions, but there is some use of Metal-specific primitives/optimizations. We expect as we make the supervisor more sophisticated, the novelty of the optimized kernels will also increase.
Overall the goal here is to get some % of the benefit of a human expert in kernel engineering, without developer effort. Compiler-based optimizations are great, but hand-tuned implementations are still common for performance-critical models. The hope is that we can automate some of that process.
* The first one, the driver made multiple racist remarks about different groups he observed as we drove.
* The second one, the driver talked at length about UFOs and how they are real, for the entire 50 minute drive.
Most drivers are totally normal and don't do things like that, but the tail end of negative experiences can be quite bad. Dirty cars, loud radios, body odor, and unsafe driving are all relatively common with human drivers. A Lyft driver I was riding with a few years back almost ran over a man in a wheelchair who had the right of way.
Wait times are also more reliable so far with Waymo. It's not uncommon for an Uber/Lyft driver to accept a ride but then not drive toward you for 5+ minutes. Waymo has the advantage of predictability - both in terms of arrival time and overall travel time (whereas there is variance among human drivers).
Sometimes I've had Waymos get stuck, but it usually resolves within 10-15 seconds.
Given how smooth, predictable, and safe Waymos are, I don't see a strong reason to risk a negative experience with a human driver (beyond ideological reasons). However, I hope another strong provider comes on the market soon to give them some competition.
In California, that's not illegal, it's the law. It's on the driver's test. Kind of counterintuitive at first, but seems much safer and also more consistent with the way turns are handled with any normal lane.
You can enumerate a,b pairs and then you need to check whether the "locked in" value of c^3 is a cube.
However imagine it takes 1ns to validate a given pair [a,b].
The eventual solution was [-80538738812075974, 80435758145817515, 12602123297335631].
Since no combination of 3 positive (and therefore small) numbers has worked, we know that one of a,b,c are negative. Let's assume at least one of a,b are negative since it doesn't matter how we allocate them.
To reach the final pair of a = 80435758145817515 (the smaller positive integer) and b = -80538738812075974, you have to increment "a" (starting from 0) 80435758145817515 times and decrement "b" (starting from 0) 80538738812075974 times.
That is 80538738812075974*80435758145817515 possible combinations.
Let's assume each one takes 1 ns (which I believe is fairly optimistic at least for a single machine)
That results in a runtime of 6.5e+24 seconds, aka 2.1e+17 years. No matter how many machines you add, the brute force approach does not appear to be feasible.
I am interested to learn more about how they solved it if not brute force.
Tech is not perfect, but I wish I had known about it sooner than college as an option for me. Once discovered, I totally fell in love with it and had to play catchup. That is why I spent time mentoring high school girls who were considering engineering, and a lot of them ended up pursuing it now that they are in college.
I think unilaterally pushing girls one way or another is wrong, but a lot of girls don't get as much exposure to tech so it is helpful to specifically tell them about it.