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⇱ Generative AI: Fine-Tuning LLMs and Diffusion Models | Coursera


Generative AI: Fine-Tuning LLMs and Diffusion Models

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Generative AI: Fine-Tuning LLMs and Diffusion Models

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Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.
Intermediate level

Recommended experience

2 weeks to complete
at 10 hours a week
Flexible schedule
Learn at your own pace

Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.
Intermediate level

Recommended experience

2 weeks to complete
at 10 hours a week
Flexible schedule
Learn at your own pace

What you'll learn

  • Build decoder-only transformer pipelines with KV caching optimizations

  • Fine-tune 7B+ LLMs using LoRA and QLoRA on consumer GPUs

  • Configure diffusers pipelines with ControlNet for controllable images

  • Train, export, and evaluate a domain-specialized LLM adapter

Details to know

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Recently updated!

May 2026

Assessments

16 assignments

Taught in English

Build your subject-matter expertise

This course is part of the Advanced Deep Learning Architectures Specialization
When you enroll in this course, you'll also be enrolled in this Specialization.
  • Learn new concepts from industry experts
  • Gain a foundational understanding of a subject or tool
  • Develop job-relevant skills with hands-on projects
  • Earn a shareable career certificate

There are 4 modules in this course

"Master Generative AI with hands-on training in Large Language Models (LLMs), PEFT techniques (LoRA, QLoRA), and Diffusion Models using Hugging Face, diffusers, peft, trl, and bitsandbytes. This course takes you from the internals of decoder-only transformers to building a specialist fine-tuned LLM and generating high-quality, controllable images with ControlNet.

In Module 1, explore decoder-only transformer architectures, self-attention, causal masking, KV caching, and token flow mechanics. Module 2 focuses on Parameter-Efficient Fine-Tuning (PEFT), where you'll implement LoRA, QLoRA, and 4-bit quantization to fine-tune large models on consumer GPUs using SFT pipelines. Module 3 dives into diffusion models, covering forward/reverse processes, UNet, schedulers (DDIM, Euler, DPM++), and ControlNet conditioning. Module 4 is a capstone where you'll build a Specialist LLM β€” from dataset creation to adapter export and evaluation. By the end of this course, you will: - Build and optimize decoder-only transformer pipelines with KV caching - Fine-tune 7B+ LLMs using LoRA, QLoRA, and SFT pipelines on limited hardware - Configure diffusers pipelines with ControlNet for controllable image generation - Train, export, and evaluate a domain-specialized LLM adapter end-to-end" Disclaimer: This is an independent educational resource created by Board Infinity for informational and educational purposes only. This course is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or officially associated with any company, organization, or certification body unless explicitly stated. The content provided is based on industry knowledge and best practices but does not constitute official training material for any specific employer or certification program. All company names, trademarks, service marks, and logos referenced are the property of their respective owners and are used solely for educational identification and comparison purposes.

Explore the inner workings of decoder-only transformer architectures, including token flow, self-attention, causal masking, and KV cache optimization.

What's included

11 videos3 readings4 assignments

11 videosβ€’Total 107 minutes
  • Where LLM Engineers Work Todayβ€’10 minutes
  • Why Decoder-Only Models Dominate Industry Part 1β€’11 minutes
  • Why Decoder-Only Models Dominate Industry part -2β€’9 minutes
  • Skills Employers Wantβ€’11 minutes
  • Skills Employers Want Part 2β€’9 minutes
  • What Happens When You Type a Promptβ€’9 minutes
  • Decoder Block Components (Mental Model)β€’9 minutes
  • How Tokens Flow Through Layersβ€’9 minutes
  • Causal Masking & "No Peeking"β€’10 minutes
  • Why Attention Is Expensiveβ€’10 minutes
  • KV Cache: Why Inference Gets Fasterβ€’10 minutes
3 readingsβ€’Total 90 minutes
  • The LLM Engineering Landscape (2026)β€’30 minutes
  • Inside the Decoder Block: Architecture & Data Flowβ€’30 minutes
  • KV Cache Optimization & Attention Behavior Analysisβ€’30 minutes
4 assignmentsβ€’Total 105 minutes
  • Transformer Internals & Decoder-Only Architecturesβ€’60 minutes
  • Career Scope in LLM Engineeringβ€’15 minutes
  • Anatomy of Decoder-Only Transformersβ€’15 minutes
  • Self-Attention, Causal Masking & KV-Cache Behaviorβ€’15 minutes

Master parameter-efficient fine-tuning techniques including LoRA, QLoRA with 4-bit quantization, and building supervised fine-tuning pipelines using peft and trl.

What's included

12 videos3 readings4 assignments

12 videosβ€’Total 106 minutes
  • The Core Idea Behind PEFTβ€’9 minutes
  • The Core Idea Behind PEFT part 2β€’11 minutes
  • The Core Idea Behind PEFT Part3β€’6 minutes
  • Implementing LoRA Layers in Attention Blocksβ€’10 minutes
  • Where PEFT Works (and Where It Doesn't)β€’11 minutes
  • LoRA Explainedβ€’9 minutes
  • QLoRA: Training Big Models on Small GPUsβ€’9 minutes
  • Setting QLoRA Hyperparameters for Stabilityβ€’9 minutes
  • What Good SFT Data Looks Like Part 1β€’8 minutes
  • What Good SFT Data Looks Like Part2β€’6 minutes
  • Building Full SFT Pipelines Using TRLβ€’8 minutes
  • Early Evaluation & Failure Signalsβ€’10 minutes
3 readingsβ€’Total 90 minutes
  • LoRA Fundamentals & Design Decisionsβ€’30 minutes
  • QLoRA Implementation Guide for Large Modelsβ€’30 minutes
  • Constructing Reliable SFT Datasets for Behavior Modelingβ€’30 minutes
4 assignmentsβ€’Total 105 minutes
  • PEFT - LoRA, QLoRA, & SFT Pipelinesβ€’60 minutes
  • Introduction to PEFT & Low-Rank Adaptationβ€’15 minutes
  • QLoRA & 4-Bit Quantization Pathwayβ€’15 minutes
  • Building SFT Pipelines with peft + trlβ€’15 minutes

Understand the forward and reverse diffusion processes, configure diffusers pipelines with various schedulers, and apply ControlNets for conditioned image generation.

What's included

10 videos3 readings4 assignments

10 videosβ€’Total 77 minutes
  • Adding Noise: The Forward Processβ€’7 minutes
  • Removing Noise: The Reverse Processβ€’8 minutes
  • Why Timesteps Matterβ€’8 minutes
  • Diffusers Pipeline Componentsβ€’7 minutes
  • Diffusers Pipeline Components Part2β€’10 minutes
  • Choosing the Right Schedulerβ€’5 minutes
  • Style, Guidance & Sampling Tricksβ€’7 minutes
  • Why Prompting Alone Is Not Enoughβ€’8 minutes
  • ControlNet Concepts (Visual)β€’8 minutes
  • Practical: Conditioning an Image with ControlNetβ€’8 minutes
3 readingsβ€’Total 90 minutes
  • Mathematical Intuition Behind Diffusion Timestepsβ€’30 minutes
  • Scheduler Comparison & Practical Recommendationsβ€’30 minutes
  • ControlNet for Structured Image Generationβ€’30 minutes
4 assignmentsβ€’Total 105 minutes
  • Diffusion Models & Image Generationβ€’60 minutes
  • The Forward & Reverse Diffusion Processβ€’15 minutes
  • Configuring diffusers Pipelinesβ€’15 minutes
  • ControlNets & Conditioning Techniquesβ€’15 minutes

Apply all course concepts in a capstone project building a specialist LLM through dataset creation, QLoRA training, and adapter exporting with rigorous evaluation.

What's included

12 videos3 readings4 assignments

12 videosβ€’Total 81 minutes
  • Converting Logs Into SFT-Ready Training Dataβ€’9 minutes
  • Designing Prompt Templates & Chat Formatsβ€’6 minutes
  • Cleaning, Normalizing & Validating Training Dataβ€’8 minutes
  • Cleaning, Normalizing & Validating Training Data Part 2β€’5 minutes
  • Cleaning, Normalizing & Validating Training Data Part 3β€’7 minutes
  • Training Workflow Using LoRA/QLoRAβ€’5 minutes
  • Monitoring Training Loss & Detecting Overfittingβ€’6 minutes
  • Memory-Saving Techniquesβ€’7 minutes
  • Exporting LoRA/QLoRA Adapters for Deploymentβ€’8 minutes
  • Exporting LoRAQLoRA Adapters for Deployment part 2β€’5 minutes
  • Loading the Adapter Into Base Models for Inferenceβ€’6 minutes
  • Evaluating Alignment: Perplexity, Behavior, Scenariosβ€’7 minutes
3 readingsβ€’Total 90 minutes
  • Dataset Quality Standards for Persona-Level LLMsβ€’30 minutes
  • Troubleshooting PEFT Training Failuresβ€’30 minutes
  • Evaluation Framework for Domain-Specialized LLMsβ€’30 minutes
4 assignmentsβ€’Total 105 minutes
  • The Hands-On Project - The Specialist LLMβ€’60 minutes
  • Dataset Creation & Prompt-Style Engineeringβ€’15 minutes
  • Training the Specialist LoRA/QLoRA Adapterβ€’15 minutes
  • Exporting, Loading & Evaluating the Adapterβ€’15 minutes

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Instructor

Board Infinity
261 Coursesβ€’428,749 learners

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Frequently asked questions

A basic understanding of Python, PyTorch, and neural networks is helpful. Familiarity with transformers is a plus but not mandatory β€” we cover decoder internals from scratch.

You'll work with Hugging Face transformers, peft, trl, bitsandbytes, and diffusers for LLM fine-tuning and image generation.

To access the course materials, assignments and to earn a Certificate, you will need to purchase the Certificate experience when you enroll in a course. You can try a Free Trial instead, or apply for Financial Aid. The course may offer 'Full Course, No Certificate' instead. This option lets you see all course materials, submit required assessments, and get a final grade. This also means that you will not be able to purchase a Certificate experience.

When you enroll in the course, you get access to all of the courses in the Specialization, and you earn a certificate when you complete the work. Your electronic Certificate will be added to your Accomplishments page - from there, you can print your Certificate or add it to your LinkedIn profile.

Yes. In select learning programs, you can apply for financial aid or a scholarship if you can’t afford the enrollment fee. If fin aid or scholarship is available for your learning program selection, you’ll find a link to apply on the description page.

Financial aid available,