{"id":403669,"date":"2026-02-06T16:23:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T21:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yorku.ca\/yfile\/?p=403669"},"modified":"2026-02-12T17:59:56","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T22:59:56","slug":"york-prof-innovating-smaller-faster-and-more-sustainable-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yorku.ca\/yfile\/2026\/02\/06\/york-prof-innovating-smaller-faster-and-more-sustainable-ai\/","title":{"rendered":"York prof innovating smaller, faster and more sustainable AI"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A new Manulife partnership allows <strong>Gene Cheung<\/strong>, a professor in the <a href=\"https:\/\/lassonde.yorku.ca\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Lassonde School of Engineering<\/a>, to build on his pioneering research making AI smaller in ways that could benefit both the environment and the practical use of large language models.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>In recent years, AI tools have become widely adopted across a range of sectors, supporting many applications. Many of these tools are powered by deep learning (DL) models, which learn patterns directly from large volumes of data by adjusting internal parameters \u2013 the settings a model changes as it learns. An example of this is the large language model (LLM).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For some organizations, however, adoption can prove challenging. \u201cOne main challenge is the cost and time required to train billions of parameters from collected data, and the cost of using LLMs for interference, which generate text answers, images, voices and vidoes based on requests,\u201d says Cheung. \u201cIts sheer scale translates to large daily operation costs for businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are also environmental considerations. The longer it takes to train an AI model, the more electricity is consumed. \u201cThis is why AI tech companies currently demand huge energy supplies and are building nuclear plants to meet their needs,\u201d he says. Much of this electricity comes from carbon\u2011intensive sources, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions and environmental impact.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1007\" height=\"946\" src=\"https:\/\/www.yorku.ca\/yfile\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/889\/2026\/02\/Gene-Cheung.jpg\" alt=\"Gene Cheung\" class=\"wp-image-403670\" style=\"width:340px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.yorku.ca\/yfile\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/889\/2026\/02\/Gene-Cheung.jpg 1007w, https:\/\/www.yorku.ca\/yfile\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/889\/2026\/02\/Gene-Cheung-400x376.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1007px) 100vw, 1007px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Gene Cheung<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Over the last several years, Cheung, a faculty member in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, has worked with international partners to develop smaller, more efficient alternatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His research focuses on miniaturizing transformer models, a type of deep learning model that excels at discovering complex patterns in data \u2013 from language and images to time\u2011series signals \u2013 by analyzing relationships across all parts of the input.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIf we can miniaturize DL models by one to two orders of magnitude, that would mean much smaller training and operation costs,\u201d he says. \u201cIt would also save a lot of electricity and thus be environmentally friendly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To date, Cheung\u2019s research group at York has applied miniaturized models to a variety of areas, including imaging, traffic and weather data, and even brain signals measured by EEG. They have already reduced model sizes by up to 100 times without noticeable drops in performance. Their smaller models can perform image processing tasks, such as denoising and interpolation, as effectively as much larger state\u2011of\u2011the\u2011art systems, while using only a fraction of the model parameters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Recently, Cheung and his collaborators received an opportunity to explore a new application of their innovative methods: LLMs, some of the largest and most widely used AI systems today. These models are trained on massive collections of text to understand and generate human language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last summer, Cheung connected with Eugene Wen, vice-president and global chief data scientist at Manulife, a multinational insurance and financial services company investing in advancing its AI capabilities and applied AI research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\"Our goal is to build advanced AI solutions that balance high-speed and accuracy with low energy consumption to reduce costs and our carbon footprint,\" says Wen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The company was seeking an LLM that could answer customer queries quickly and accurately while using minimal computing resources and electricity, helping to keep costs and energy use low. Manulife provided funding for Cheng's research, including support for PhD students to participate, continuing its commitment to parter with universities on joint research projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, in partnership with Manulife, Cheung is pursuing this project in collaboration with his graduate students and Professor Vicky Zhao, a longtime friend and research partner from Tsinghua University in China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Building on their previous work, Cheung and his collaborators are exploring a novel approach to applying their miniaturization techniques to LLMs. In an earlier project, they trained a parameter-efficient graph-based denoiser \u2013 an AI system that gradually removes noise from grainy images to produce a clear result using a learned similarity graph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Generating text from scratch in an LLM can also be interpreted as a sequence of denoising steps, so that the developed denoiser can be redeployed in the language context. By training the generative model as sequential denoising stages, they hope to reduce the number of parameters needed, speed up training and lower energy use. This could create smaller, faster and more efficient LLMs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cheung says the work with Manulife also allows him to pursue his broader research philosophy. \u201cThe main driver of my research is to understand,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He notes that most off\u2011the\u2011shelf LLMs operate like black boxes, with limited visibility into why different operations are stacked together in particular configurations. By applying his miniaturization techniques to LLMs, he can test these ideas on a new type of AI system, learning what the model truly needs to know and reducing unnecessary complexity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAs signal processing researchers, my colleagues and I strive to understand systems in a more fundamental way so that we learn only what needs to be learned \u2013 the \u2018known unknowns.\u2019 In so doing, we reduce model parameters,\u201d he says. This approach helps create smaller, more efficient language models and furthers his goal of understanding AI at a foundational level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Manulife data scientist are part of the research team, providing data and experience in building generative AI solutions to solve business challenges. This arrangement allows Cheung and his team to continue research and refine models for real-world imipact, while Manulife can explore practical applications, such as reducing operational costs and environmental footprint. It also enables Cheung to pursue the broader objectives that drive his work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe hope that the long\u2011term impact of the research is to enable more frugal model learning that is more energy\u2011efficient and environmentally friendly,\u201d he says. \u201cThat way everyone can benefit from the power of AI without paying a substantial environmental price.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>York University Professor Gene Cheung is pioneering miniaturized AI that reduces training costs, energy use and environmental impact.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2293,"featured_media":402913,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25,22],"tags":[56,6,9,20,35,21,75,49,51,37,15,4],"yfileauthor":[204],"qualifier":[198],"yfile-author":[248],"tags-to-show":[160,147,175,173,153,154,158],"workflow":[],"class_list":["post-403669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editors-picks","category-research-innovation","tag-ai","tag-faculty","tag-international","tag-lassonde","tag-partnerships","tag-research","tag-sdg-12","tag-sdg-13","tag-sdg-7","tag-sdg-9","tag-sdg","tag-yfile","yfileauthor-yfilestaff","qualifier-by","yfile-author-alex-huls","tags-to-show-artificial-intelligence-ai","tags-to-show-faculty","tags-to-show-international","tags-to-show-lassonde","tags-to-show-partnerships","tags-to-show-research","tags-to-show-sdg"],"acf":{"internal_publish_date":"20260209","original_image":""},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - 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