Uploading Files to OpenAI: Passing the Baton

To complete the analogy of passing the baton, let’s explore how to upload the prepared JSONL files to OpenAI using their Files API, enabling us to move closer to fine-tuning the model.

Step-by-Step Guide to Uploading Files

Prerequisites

• Ensure you have the openai Python package installed. If not, install it using:

pip install openai

• Obtain your OpenAI API key from OpenAI's API settings.

_ Upload Files to OpenAI_

• Here’s the Python script for uploading the prepared JSONL files.

from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI()
# File paths for training and testing datasets
file_paths = {
    "train": "train.jsonl",
    "test": "test.jsonl"
}

# Function to upload a file
def upload_file(file_path, purpose="fine-tune"):
    try:
        response = client.files.create(
            file=open(file_path, "rb"),
            purpose=purpose
        )
        print(f"File uploaded successfully: {file_path}")
        print(f"File ID: {response['id']}")
        return response["id"]
    except Exception as e:
        print(f"Failed to upload {file_path}: {e}")
        return None

# Upload both training and test files
file_ids = {split: upload_file(file_paths[split]) for split in file_paths}

print("Uploaded file IDs:", file_ids)

Explanation of the Code

API Key Setup:

• Set your OpenAI API key to authenticate requests.

File Paths:

• Specify the paths to the JSONL files prepared earlier (train.jsonl and test.jsonl).

Uploading Files:

• Use openai.files.create() to upload the JSONL files to OpenAI.
• The purpose parameter is set to "fine-tune" for fine-tuning datasets.

Error Handling:

• Catch and log any errors encountered during the upload process.

File IDs:

• After uploading, OpenAI assigns a unique file_id to each uploaded file. These IDs will be needed when initiating the fine-tuning process.

Output Example

If the upload is successful, you’ll see something like this:

File uploaded successfully: dataset/train.jsonl
File ID: file-abc123xyz456
File uploaded successfully: dataset/test.jsonl
File ID: file-def789uvw012
Uploaded file IDs: {'train': 'file-abc123xyz456', 'test': 'file-def789uvw012'}

Why Is This Step Important?

Uploading the JSONL files is akin to the Six Triple Eight handing over their sorted mail to postal services for final delivery. Without this step, the fine-tuning process cannot proceed, as OpenAI’s infrastructure needs access to structured, validated data to train the model effectively.

Once uploaded, the baton has been passed to OpenAI, and you’re ready to move on to fine-tuning the model using these files.