sup computer — a small language model studio
sup computer is a research studio. Our models are trained from scratch, shaped like their data, and played like instruments. Larger models help at every step, from dataset creation to training and evaluation, under human direction.
Models
- daydream-chess-nanogptPlays chess without ever learning the rules — move by move from games, on three board sizes.play
- gatsby-nanogptBends any story toward the green light — obsession you can dial from 1 to 5.dial
- glyph-nanogptDraws the lowercase alphabet one letter at a time — one model, released chasing the twenty-six specialists that out-drew it.draw
- kenosha-kid-nanogptDreams endlessly on just six words.dream
- pona-nanogptSpeaks Toki Pona — about 130 words, and every one of them is a key.talk
- shakespeare-nanogptWrites Shakespeare from scratch — and gets sharper every research round.write
Selected research
A month after the first model, I've trained ~60 and released 11, each starting from a question. These models are knowledge-light and shaped like their data, too small to chat with. The long-term bet is inventing harnesses that turn each one into an instrument.
The studio's small models are instruments — single-purpose, played rather than prompted — and sup, the studio CLI, is the accessibility argument: one greeting downloads a release and streams its voice to stdout. A handle that simple works in a shell pipe, which means it works for another model.
Five rounds of Token Chess — a benchmark where LLMs may not author chess moves, only steer Daydream's sampler under a token budget — asked what a token actually buys. Round one: plies, at a worsening rate (every game forfeits; legality collapses 49% → 14% out of the opening book). Round two: remove death and nothing discriminates. Round three: price batches and candidate-picking with engine adjudication, and the benchmark finally separates players — then ministral, the worst sampler on the board, beats olmo 3–1 on pure tempo. Rounds four and five close on memory: assigned a free notepad, olmo writes zero notes in 24 games; offered the choice, it picks the notepad 24 seats out of 24, explains why every time, and still writes nothing.