Fine-Tuning Llama 3 on a Custom Dataset (Google Colab Guide)
Base models are boring. Fine-tuned models are valuable.
The Format
Your data must look like this:
{"instruction": "Explain quantum physics", "output": "It's like magic but with math."}
The Tool: Unsloth
We use Unsloth because it makes fine-tuning 2x faster and uses 50% less VRAM. You can fit Llama-3-8B on a Colab T4 GPU.
Testing
Once you have your adapter.safetensors, don't just trust the loss curve.
Load it into AI Playground and verify the output qualitative quality.