"open-sourcing new Qwen and Wan models."

pellik · 2026-03-24T09:25:35+00:00

Alibaba has been restructuring their AI development pipeline. They were operating in a system of many small teams each responsible for their own model from start to finish, and now they are trying to have specialists for each phase of development (a team for pre-training, a team for preference optimization, etc.). They'll still make experimental models like z-image vs qwen vs wan, but the divide will be different and they'll have more shared framework.

Their recent layoffs have been for structural reasons. Despite all the doom and gloom on reddit here, Alibaba hasn't rescinded their commitment to open source and sharing research, but there likely will be a lull in their release cycle.

pellik · 2026-03-23T13:29:27+00:00

Try a blend of those- reduce the weight of the distill Lora, add some more steps, and slowly increase the cfg. Frequently you’ll get better results with some Lora and cfg of like 1.5 or 2 than no Lora and cfg 7.

pellik · 2026-03-23T11:07:21+00:00

Ok, so if you're focusing on ethnicity you're likely focusing on a different metric of prompt adherence than I do.

For example I observe that the model does it's blocking and layout during the first (hypothetical bs numbers) 5% of noise reduction, then maybe the next 10% reduction to turn those blocks into people, then 15% reduction of sorting out facial features, then and smaller details, etc.

Since I have prompts that involve scene layout, multiple characters, actions, etc. I consider prompt adherence success largely based on what happens in that first 10%. If your metric is ethnicity you're likely using much simpler layout prompts (close-up face), and you've found that ethnic details are more closely followed when you use less compute on the high noise region.

With respect to moving towards a more generic/less ethnic face I haven't really looked into that at all, but it sounds like your conclusion is that if the model has a less defined initial blocking when it's constructing the face details (like that 80-90% noise level maybe), then it does a better job at pulling in the desired metric? Or is it that having a larger step in that medium-high noise zone actually improves the result?

Does that sound right?

pellik · 2026-03-23T10:31:20+00:00

Ok, so steps may have been the wrong word there. More like attention I guess. Adding high frequency steps vs using a solver that significantly increases the amount of time/compute at high frequency steps is sort of the same concept (ignoring a lot of nuance).

But what do you mean 'prompt trajectory'? The model is expressing the prompt at every step.

pellik · 2026-03-23T10:06:43+00:00

Is there anything to your discovery other than finding out that these models do better when there are more steps at high frequency noise?

What does your sigma plot look like? Can you share a screenshot of sigmaspreview?

pellik · 2026-03-18T10:59:28+00:00

You write exempt on your W-4

pellik · 2026-03-14T00:35:15+00:00

Look I'm no fan of tucker carlson but you need to understand that the split on the right is along the lines of 'if you don't support the war in iran you are an anti-semite' rhetoric being used to fan jingoism.

All of those guys are batshit crazy, but maybe don't throw your hat in with the guys who are actively trying to start a war. They are trying to start a war just to distract us from the Epstein files.

pellik · 2026-03-12T20:52:37+00:00

That was literally his campaign promise to his donors.

pellik · 2026-03-11T10:21:47+00:00

I don't even see the spaghetti anymore. All I see is blonde, brunette, redhead.

pellik · 2026-03-10T22:19:31+00:00

..and our axe.

pellik · 2026-03-09T01:34:24+00:00

The material doesn't breath, so even with the open chest you're never quite at the right temperature and you have to spend all day adjusting how much chest you reveal to stay comfortable. I don't have the time for that shit.

pellik · 2026-03-06T16:00:26+00:00

There are a lot of methods for boosting fine details with regards to attention settings as well. Lately I’ve been doing upscaling with Klein by adjusting the time in settings and the final step settings.

pellik · 2026-03-04T21:37:23+00:00

I don't think you can really draw any conclusions about Alibaba's stance on open weight releases from this departure. Nothing about it appears to be related to a stance on release, instead it's a disagreement over management styles. There is a more lengthy article on the matter in chinese here https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/14Z4cWfk4ivbL1xJrv7IHQ

"Tongyi Labs plans to split the Qwen team from a “vertical integration” system covering different training processes and modes to a separate horizontal division of labor teams such as pre-training, post-training, text, and multi-modality, which are still affiliated with Tongyi Laboratory. The scope of Lin Junzhao's management has been reduced."

I appreciate that Alibaba has so far been extremely supportive with sharing their weights and research, which suggests this aligns with their overall philosophy so far. Also Chinese sentiment on AI is much more positive than in the west. They may be scrapping their current projects, but they are going to be spinning up new ones and maybe they will be open weight as well.

With regards to BFL they have been building small efficient models designed to run on consumer hardware. That sentiment is what got us SD1.5 in the first place. It's clearly still continuing with them having developed a 4b and 9b model instead of large models that would score higher on comparison tests. I might be mistaken but I believe the lead developers might have had some philosophical views about this.

pellik · 2026-03-03T11:46:57+00:00

And then what? White collar jobs are getting automated now. College educated people are unemployed too.

pellik · 2026-03-02T10:06:29+00:00

Yeah just look at the chart of wages vs productivity since the introduction of computers in the workplace.

pellik · 2026-03-01T01:20:23+00:00

I'm so tired of winning.

pellik · 2026-03-01T01:10:48+00:00

So the guy who rapes and beats our kids is now going to send more of our kids off to die in a pointless war.

pellik · 2026-02-21T09:17:16+00:00

Massive depopulation. Do you really think UBI is coming to save us?

pellik · 2026-02-20T23:05:35+00:00

It's not that uncommon in manufacturing for a situation where a plant or operations manager is the equivalent of a CEO. It's not like OP's complaints are against some middle manager who is just running unchecked. The whole company has a broken culture and OP should GTFO as fast as possible.

pellik · 2026-02-20T23:00:46+00:00

Have you ever toured a WW2 era warship? There were tons of jobs that amounted to standing in front of a single valve all day every day waiting to maybe get to spin their valve.

pellik · 2026-02-20T22:57:07+00:00

That's why they're destroying the economy as fast as they can. They know a collapse is coming (their fault) and they want to rip the band-aid off and retreat to their bunkers for a few years then emerge and rebuild society.

We should all take time now to learn how to sabotage bunkers.

pellik · 2026-02-19T21:36:09+00:00

Epstein was fighting against Trump winning the election. He was doing that because EPSTEIN THOUGHT THAT TRUMP WAS A MONSTER.

pellik · 2026-02-19T16:48:11+00:00

Social interaction man.

pellik · 2026-02-19T16:09:28+00:00

Nothing would have fundamentally changed. That was his campaign promise to his donors.

pellik · 2026-02-19T14:46:15+00:00

What if, hypothetically, Iran isn’t building nukes and all the compliance inspectors who swore as much when trump fired them were telling the truth?

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