Distillation is Fundamentally a Data Problem

willdepue · x · 2026-07-19

The author corrects their phrasing on distillation, arguing that distillation is primarily a data problem, not a logits problem. They give an example: training on content like Shakespeare or fable is essentially "distilling from that data," where the key lies in the quality and distribution of the data itself.

Their core judgment is that many people lack an understanding of the data ↔ performance relationship; even with infinite html website data or even some logits clues, it may not bring the imagined improvements in low-entropy scenarios.

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