Model reference · open weights
aion is an open-weight language model from polymathic-ai. aion-base (FP32) weighs 636 MB; the smallest configuration that runs it is RTX 3060 12 GB.
For self-hosting, compare this build's requirements below with the GPU you plan to rent.
Summary of the polymathic-ai/aion-base model card, 2026-10-01
What it is
| Released by | polymathic-ai |
|---|---|
| Released | 2025-05-16 |
| Parameters | 318M |
| VRAM | 636 MB for the weights |
What it runs on
How much memory each request adds isn't estimated yet for this architecture. The weights need at least the cards below, plus room for the context.
| Card | Weights alone |
|---|---|
| RTX 3060 12 GB | fits |
| RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB | fits |
| RTX 3090 24 GB | fits |
| RTX 4090 24 GB | fits |
| RTX 5090 32 GB | fits |
| L40S 48 GB | fits |
| A100 80 GB | fits |
| H100 80 GB | fits |
| RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell 96 GB | fits |
| DGX Spark (GB10) 128 GB unified | fits |
| H200 141 GB | fits |
| B200 180 GB | fits |
From the model card
AION-base is a 300M parameter large omnimodal model specifically designed for astronomical surveys, presented in the paper AION-1: Omnimodal Foundation Model for Astronomical Sciences. It integrates 39 distinct astronomical data types and enables adaptation to a wide range of astronomical tasks through multimodal masked modeling.
Project Homepage: https://polymathic-ai.org/
Assuming you have PyTorch installed, you can install AION trivially with:
pip install polymathic-aion
For advanced installation options, including specific PyTorch versions or developer installations, refer to the GitHub repository.
After installation, you can load the pretrained model and start analyzing astronomical data.
import torch
from aion import AION
from aion.codecs import CodecManager
from aion.modalities import LegacySurveyImage, Z
# Load model and codec manager
model = AION.from_pretrained('polymathic-ai/aion-base').to('cuda') # or 'aion-large', 'aion-xlarge'
codec_manager = CodecManager(device='cuda')
# Example: Prepare your astronomical data (e.g., a dummy Legacy Survey image)
# In a real scenario, 'your_image_tensor' would come from your dataset.
your_image_tensor = torch.randn(1, 4, 96, 96) # Example: batch_size=1, 4 bands, 96x96 resolution
image = LegacySurveyImage(
flux=your_image_tensor,
bands=['DES-G', 'DES-R', 'DES-I', 'DES-Z']
)
# Encode data to tokens
tokens = codec_manager.encode(image)
# Option 1: Extract embeddings for downstream tasks
embeddings = model.encode(tokens, num_encoder_tokens=600)
print(f"Extracted embeddings shape: {embeddings.shape}")
# Option 2: Generate predictions (e.g., redshift)
# For this example, we predict redshift (Z) from the image.
# The target_mask tells the model which modality to generate.
preds = model(
codec_manager.encode(image),
target_modality=Z,
)
print(f"Predicted redshift logits shape: {preds['tok_z'].shape}")
AION-Base processes data from major astronomical surveys. Here's an overview of the supported categories:
| Category | Description | Token Name(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Imaging (2) | Legacy Survey, HSC Wide | tok_image_ls, tok_image_hsc |
| Catalog (1) | Legacy Survey catalog entries | catalog |
| Spectra (2) | SDSS, DESI | tok_spectrum_sdss, tok_spectrum_desi |
| Gaia (4) | BP/RP spectra, parallax, sky coords | tok_xp_bp, tok_xp_rp, tok_parallax, tok_ra, tok_dec |
| Gaia Photometry (3) | G/BP/RP flux | tok_flux_g_gaia, tok_flux_bp_gaia, tok_flux_rp_gaia |
| Legacy Survey (9) | g,r,i,z bands & WISE W1–W4 flux, E(B–V) | tok_flux_g,…,tok_flux_w4, tok_ebv |
| Legacy Shape (3) | Ellipticity components & effective radius | tok_shape_e1, tok_shape_e2, tok_shape_r |
| HSC Photometry (5) | g,r,i,z,y magnitudes | tok_mag_g,…,tok_mag_y |
| HSC Extinction (5) | g,r,i,z,y extinctions | tok_a_g,…,tok_a_y |
| HSC Shape (3) | Shape components 11,22,12 | tok_shape11, tok_shape22, tok_shape12 |
| Other (1) | Spectroscopic redshift | tok_z |
This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file in the GitHub repository for full details.
Built with ❤️ for the astronomical community by https://polymathic-ai.org/
Quoted from the model card on Hugging Face. The full card is behind the Hugging Face link above.
How it works