SUPPORT PROGRAM

Application Procedure for the 2nd ABCI Large-scale Language Model Building Support Program

AI Bridging Cloud Infrastructure (ABCI) is the largest scale computing infrastructure in the world (as of 2018) for artificial intelligence processing, built and operated by the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), began operations in August 2018.

AIST has launched the “ABCI Grand Challenge” program to support the challenge of the most significant issues in the field of artificial intelligence that can only be made possible through enormous computing power, as well as impactful social issues utilizing artificial intelligence, big data, and quantum computation. Upon the recent growing demand for large-scale language models, we are now introducing a new “Large-scale Language Model Building Support” program.

ABCI has been set maximum number of parallel jobs and their execution time in order to avoid excessively long waiting times for jobs. However, this limitation makes it difficult to execute jobs that require a huge amount of computation, such as large-scale language models. This program allows ABCI users who wish to build large-scale language models to reserve 30 - 80 nodes of Node A (240-640 GPUs), for a maximum of 60 days. Please note that ABCI points should be obtained in charge by the ABCI users to execute this program. Unlike the Grand Challenge, AIST never grants free ABCI points in this program.

Notes

• Proposals must be publicly solicited, and proposals may be submitted by individuals or groups of individuals affiliated with domestic corporations.
• The number of proposals accepted will be one or more.
• Some of the resources planned to be provided may not be available due to rational reasons, such as node failure.
• ABCI points are to be paid by the user. AIST never grant free ABCI points in this program.
• When using the ABCI, you are required to comply with the terms and conditions stipulated in the "National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Agreement of Use for the Shared High-Performance Computer, ABCI". If you do not have an ABCI account, you will need to submit an "ABCI Application Procedure" after your application is accepted.

Overview of the Implementation Schedule

Reservations can be made for a maximum of 60 days starting in early August. The actual start date will be decided upon consultation after the program is adopted.

Application deadline

• September 20th 1:00pm

Application

Please download the application forms below (Sorry, Japanese only.):

• [Word format]
• [PDF format]

Complete the application form and submit it via e-mail to the address below by the application deadline.

E-mail address for submission: abci-gc@aist.go.jp

Applicants will be notified of the review results by e-mail by September 25th.

Proposal Review

Proposals will be reviewed by the Proposal Review Committee, which will be established by the ABCI LLM Building Support Program Executive Committee, based on the results of the document review and discussion.

The main criteria are as follows:

• Challenging proposal
• Potential for groundbreaking results in the field of artificial intelligence and the use of artificial intelligence and big data
• Academic or social impact, public nature
• Feasibility and appropriateness of the plan
• Implementation structure and plan