Sky-T1: A $450 Open-Source AI Model Rivals OpenAI's o1
Sky-T1: A $450 Open-Source AI Model Rivals OpenAI's o1

Overview of the $450 Open-Source Reasoning Model: Sky-T1

Model Name: Sky-T1-32B-Preview
Developed by: NovaSky, UC Berkeley
Cost to Train: Less than $450
Performance: Matches OpenAI’s o1-preview on various reasoning and coding benchmarks.

Key Features and Capabilities

Open-Source Commitment

  • All code, model weights, and training data are fully open-source, allowing the academic and open-source communities to replicate and build upon the work.
  • The model is designed to perform well in both mathematical reasoning and coding tasks.

Training Data

  • The model was trained using a dataset of 17,000 examples, which includes 5,000 coding problems and 10,000 math problems, along with 1,000 science and puzzle problems.
  • The training data was curated using a combination of existing models and a reject sampling procedure to ensure high quality.

Technical Specifications

  • The model was fine-tuned from Qwen2.5-32B-Instruct, a base model without inherent reasoning capabilities.
  • Training was conducted over 19 hours on 8 H100 GPUs, utilizing DeepSpeed Zero-3 offload technology.

Benchmark Performance

  • Sky-T1-32B-Preview achieved competitive scores on various benchmarks:
    • Math500: 82.4%
    • AIME2024: 43.3%
    • LiveCodeBench (Easy): 86.3%
    • LiveCodeBench (Medium): 56.8%
    • LiveCodeBench (Hard): 17.9%
    • GPQA-Diamond: 56.8%

Reasoning Techniques

  • The model employs advanced reasoning techniques that allow it to produce a long internal chain of thought, similar to other high-performing models like OpenAI’s o1 and Gemini 2.0.
  • It has been noted that model size and data mixture significantly impact performance, with larger models (32B) yielding better results compared to smaller counterparts.

Future Directions

  • The NovaSky team plans to continue developing more efficient models while maintaining strong reasoning performance and exploring advanced techniques to enhance accuracy.

References

  1. TechCrunch Article on Sky-T1
  2. NovaSky Official Post on Sky-T1
  3. Digital Alps Overview of Sky-T1

This research highlights the emergence of affordable, open-source AI models that can compete with established models like OpenAI’s o1, showcasing the potential for broader access to advanced AI technologies.