README.md

---
license: apache-2.0
language:
  - en
library_name: transformers
pipeline_tag: text-generation
pretty_name: Echo88 150M Base
tags:
  - text-generation
  - causal-lm
  - base-model
  - decoder-only
  - from-scratch
  - retro
  - 1980s
  - usenet
  - magazines
  - books
  - computer-history
  - english
datasets:
  - guus4324343/Echo88-Pretrain-1.17B
---

# Echo88-150M-Base

Echo88-150M-Base is a small English decoder-only causal language model trained from scratch on the Echo88 pretraining dataset.

The goal of Echo88 is to create a compact base model inspired by the language, computing culture, printed media, Usenet discussion, and older book knowledge available up to the late 1980s.

This is a **base model**, not an instruction-tuned chatbot. It is trained for next-token prediction and should be fine-tuned before being used as a helpful assistant.

## Model Details

```text
Model name: Echo88-150M-Base
Model type: Decoder-only causal language model
Training type: From scratch
Approx size: 150M parameters
Language: English
Context length: 2048 tokens
Tokenizer: Echo88 custom tokenizer
Intended use: Base pretraining / text generation / further fine-tuning
```

## Training Data

Echo88-150M-Base was trained on the Echo88 Base Dataset, a cleaned English text corpus of approximately **1.17B tokens**.

The dataset includes:

```text
Books / Gutenberg-style public-domain text
UTZOO Usenet posts
BYTE Magazine
PC Magazine
TIME Magazine
Internet Archive Magazine Rack OCR text
Computer and technology magazine text
General historical magazine text
```

The dataset is designed to emphasize the period from the 1950s through the late 1980s, with a strong focus on early personal computing, Usenet, printed magazines, and older long-form writing.

Related dataset:

```text
guus4324343/Echo88-Pretrain-1.17B
```

## Intended Use

This model is intended for:

```text
causal language modeling
retro / historical AI experiments
small language model research
continued pretraining
instruction tuning
1980s-style assistant experiments
computer-history model experiments
```

Recommended next step:

```text
Echo88-150M-Base
→ supervised fine-tune on Echo88-Instruct-173K
→ Echo88-150M-Instruct
```

## Not Instruction Tuned

This model is not yet trained to follow instructions reliably.

For chat or assistant behavior, use or create an instruction-tuned version using:

```text
guus4324343/Echo88-Instruct-173K
```

Expected behavior of the base model:

```text
continues text
completes paragraphs
imitates source style
may produce raw text rather than direct answers
may not follow commands consistently
```

## Knowledge Boundary

Echo88 is designed around a historical data mixture ending around the late 1980s.

The model should not be expected to know modern topics such as:

```text
Google
Wikipedia
iPhone
smartphones
modern social media
Windows 95 and later software
COVID-19
modern AI systems
2000s/2010s/2020s events
```

Because this is a base model, it may still hallucinate if prompted about modern events. A later instruction-tuned model should be trained to respond more carefully to post-1988 topics.

## Example Usage

```python
from transformers import AutoTokenizer, AutoModelForCausalLM
import torch

model_id = "guus4324343/Echo88-150M-Base"

tokenizer = AutoTokenizer.from_pretrained(model_id)
model = AutoModelForCausalLM.from_pretrained(
    model_id,
    torch_dtype=torch.float16,
    device_map="auto"
)

prompt = "The personal computer revolution of the 1980s"
inputs = tokenizer(prompt, return_tensors="pt").to(model.device)

with torch.no_grad():
    output = model.generate(
        **inputs,
        max_new_tokens=120,
        temperature=0.8,
        top_p=0.95,
        do_sample=True
    )

print(tokenizer.decode(output[0], skip_special_tokens=True))
```

## Limitations

Echo88-150M-Base is experimental and small.

Known limitations:

```text
not instruction tuned
may hallucinate
may repeat text
may produce OCR-like artifacts
may reflect outdated historical language or views
may struggle with complex reasoning
may not reliably refuse post-1988 topics
may produce incomplete or strange continuations
```

The model is intended for research and experimentation, not high-stakes use.

## Bias and Historical Content

The training data includes historical books, magazines, and Usenet text. As a result, the model may reproduce outdated language, assumptions, stereotypes, or viewpoints present in older source material.

Users should review outputs carefully.

## Training Notes

This model was trained as the base stage of the Echo88 project.

Planned model family:

```text
Echo88-150M-Base
Echo88-150M-Instruct
Echo88-150M-Chat
```

## License

The model weights are released under the Apache 2.0 license.

The training dataset is mixed-source and is released separately under `other`. Users are responsible for checking dataset source rights and suitability for their own use case.