David vonThenen

David vonThenen

NetApp
David is a Senior AI/ML Engineer within the Office of the CTO at NetApp, where he’s dedicated to empowering developers to build, scale, and deploy AI/ML solutions in production environments. He brings deep expertise in building and training models for applications, including NLP, vision, real-time analytics, and even classifying debilitating diseases. His mission is to help users build, train, and deploy AI models efficiently, making advanced machine learning accessible to users of all levels.Before NetApp, he was heavily involved in the AI/ML community, specifically in conversational AI solutions and driving AI platform growth in a DevRel and pre-sales role. David frequently shares his insights at industry conferences and events, offering hands-on guidance for implementing AI/ML in cloud environments. David's prior experience includes contributing to the Kubernetes and CNCF ecosystems, working hands-on with VMware virtualization, implementing backup/recovery solutions, and developing hardware storage adapter firmware and drivers.
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David vonThenen
David vonThenen
NetApp

A Practical Guide to Training a Small Language Model: Tokenizers, Training, and Real-World Pitfalls

This session explains how to build, train, and deploy a small language model using open tools and knowledge distillation. It covers data selection, tokenization, model design, fine-tuning, and quantiz...
Data & AI Data & AI Conference 50 min. INTERMEDIATE