CheapET-3: cost-efficient use of remote DNN models

Abstract

On complex problems, state of the art prediction accuracy of Deep Neural Networks (DNN) can be achieved using very large-scale models, consisting of billions of parameters. Such models can only be run on dedicated servers, typically provided by a 3th party service, which leads to a substantial monetary cost for every prediction. We propose a new software architecture for client-side applications, where a small local DNN is used alongside a remote large-scale model, aiming to make easy predictions locally at negligible monetary cost, while still leveraging the benefits of a large model for challenging inputs. In a proof of concept we reduce prediction cost by up to 50% without negatively impacting system accuracy.