Subject: [bug#63088] [PATCH 0/3] Add Lc0

From: Simon Tournier <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 16 May 2023 14:16:25 +0200

Hi,

On Thu, 11 May 2023 at 18:25, zamfofex <[email-masked]> wrote:
>> Will we able to train a model from source?  And how much will it cost?
>> 
>> As far as I know, guix haven't decided to accept pre-trained models:
>> 
>> https://yhetil.org/guix/xanfHBZT3lYlyrr_OqHHMWkunLeZZlcxzY37_T3TeZo7mfJClD5-OTbkXDH2f3lMTkn94YIFVUj-Z31BP2Wj0W2rISNP6glC2PzXcPdb560=@protonmail.com/
>
> I don’t think it is feasible. Lc0’s approach is based on self‐play
> reinforcement‐learning, which in effect means that training starts
> with no knowledge about chess except for its rules (playing seemingly
> random moves), and going from there to learn increasingly more about
> it. So, in practice, this means it would take multiple months or at
> least several weeks to attain a neural network model that is anywhere
> close to as effective as the ones provided and pre‐trained. Besides, I
> believe training requires a (reasonably decent) GPU.

I concur.

> But the network isn’t prohibitively large and its license is not
> proprietary. I’ll also note that Stockfish (packaged immediately above
> my Lc0 package) *does* itself include a provided pre‐trained network
> and no‐one has really complained about it, so I think it should be
> fine here too.

I will try to dedicate some time for reviewing this patch set.

Cheers,
simon