What is distillation training in PyTorch?
In PyTorch, distillation training is a model training technique aimed at improving the performance of a smaller, simpler model (student model) by transferring the knowledge from a larger, complex model (teacher model). By using the teacher model’s predictions as targets, the student model can learn from the knowledge and experience of the teacher model, thereby enhancing its performance and generalization ability.
The main idea of distillation training is to use soft labels (probability distributions) from a teacher model to train a student model, rather than using hard labels (single class). This allows the student model to better capture relationships and distributions between categories, thereby improving its performance.
In PyTorch, specialized libraries and tools like the distiller library can be utilized for implementing distillation training. By leveraging these tools and techniques, effective distillation training can be achieved, leading to improved performance and results in practical applications.