1. Continuous Deployment of AI Models with GitHub Actions

    Python

    Continuous deployment (CD) is a software development practice where code changes are automatically prepared, tested, and released to production. For AI models, this means that changes to the model's code or its training data can trigger a new training run, followed by evaluation, and if the new model meets certain performance criteria, it can be deployed automatically. Using GitHub Actions, a feature of GitHub for automation, you can orchestrate these steps.

    To implement continuous deployment of AI models with GitHub Actions, you would typically proceed as follows:

    1. Set up your project repository on GitHub: You should have a repository with your AI model's code, any data it needs, necessary training scripts, and a requirements file listing the dependencies.

    2. Define your GitHub workflow: Workflows are defined in .yml files within the .github/workflows/ directory in your repository. Workflow files specify the sequence of actions that occur in response to certain GitHub events (for example, a push to the main branch).

    3. Trigger the workflow: Whenever the specified event occurs (such as a new git push to the main branch), GitHub Actions will execute the workflow.

    4. Configure the steps:

      • Install dependencies.
      • Run the training script.
      • Evaluate the model to ensure it meets performance criteria.
      • If successful, deploy the model (for example, by pushing a serialized version of the model to a cloud storage service).
    5. Manage secrets: If you need to use any secrets (such as cloud service credentials), you can add them to the GitHub repository's settings and reference them in your workflow file.

    Now, let's create a Pulumi program which could be used in conjunction with GitHub Actions to accomplish this. The Pulumi program might create cloud resources required for the AI model, such as:

    • Storage buckets for model data and serialized model files.
    • Permissions and roles for the GitHub Actions runner to access those resources.

    Below is an example Pulumi program written in Python. This program would set up an AWS S3 bucket where the serialized AI models can be stored after training.

    import pulumi import pulumi_aws as aws # Create an AWS S3 Bucket. ai_model_bucket = aws.s3.Bucket("aiModelBucket", acl="private", # Access control level: private means only the owner can access. ) # Export the bucket name. pulumi.export('bucket_name', ai_model_bucket.id) # IAM policy for the GitHub Actions runner to access the bucket. github_actions_policy_document = aws.iam.get_policy_document(statements=[ aws.iam.GetPolicyDocumentStatementArgs( actions=["s3:GetObject", "s3:PutObject"], # Grant read and write capabilities to GitHub Actions. resources=[ai_model_bucket.arn.apply(lambda arn: f"{arn}/*")], # All objects within the bucket. ) ]) # Create the policy. github_actions_policy = aws.iam.Policy("githubActionsPolicy", policy=github_actions_policy_document.json, ) # We now have an AWS S3 Bucket and an IAM Policy that we could reference in a GitHub Actions workflow. # The policy can be attached to an IAM role or user that GitHub Actions uses to interact with AWS resources.

    In a GitHub Actions workflow file, you would then configure steps to:

    • Install the necessary tools (Pulumi, AWS CLI, etc.).
    • Authenticate to AWS using the IAM role or user credentials (make sure to use GitHub secrets for any sensitive information).
    • Run Pulumi commands to deploy resources, which might depend on the outcome of the model training.
    • Upload the trained AI model to the provisioned S3 bucket if the evaluation criteria are passed.

    This Pulumi program only creates the S3 bucket and the necessary IAM policy. The GitHub Actions workflow will use those resources to manage the deployment of the AI models. Remember to follow best practices for secrets management and permissions. Each step in your workflow file would correspond to the bullet points in the GitHub steps explanation above.