Creating tensors on M1 GPU by default on PyTorch using jupyter

Right now, if I want to create a tensor on gpu, I have to do it manually. For context, I'm sure that GPU support is available since

print(torch.backends.mps.is_available())# this ensures that the current current PyTorch installation was built with MPS activated.
print(torch.backends.mps.is_built())

returns True.

I've been doing this every time:

device = torch.device("mps")
a = torch.randn((), device=device, dtype=dtype)

Is there a way to specify, for a jupyter notebook, that all my tensors are supposed to be run on the GPU?

The convenient way

There is no convenient way to set default device to MPS as of 2022-12-22, per discussion on this issue.

The inconvenient way

You can accomplish the objective of 'I don't want to specify device= for tensor constructors, just use MPS' by intercepting calls to tensor constructors:

class MPSMode(torch.overrides.TorchFunctionMode):
    def __init__(self):
        # incomplete list; see link above for the full list
        self.constructors = {getattr(torch, x) for x in "empty ones arange eye full fill linspace rand randn randint randperm range zeros tensor as_tensor".split()}
    def __torch_function__(self, func, types, args=(), kwargs=None):
        if kwargs is None:
            kwargs = {}
        if func in self.constructors:
            if 'device' not in kwargs:
                kwargs['device'] = 'mps'
        return func(*args, **kwargs)

# sensible usage
with MPSMode():
    print(torch.empty(1).device) # prints mps:0

# sneaky usage
MPSMode().__enter__()
print(torch.empty(1).device) # prints mps:0

The recommended way:

I would lean towards just putting your device in a config at the top of your notebook and using it explicitly:

class Conf: dev = torch.device("mps")
# ...
a = torch.randn(1, device=Conf.dev)

This requires you to type device=Conf.dev throughout the code. But you can easily switch your code to different devices, and you don't have any implicit global state to worry about.