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c0af20c | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 | # What is safetensors ?
[safetensors](https://github.com/huggingface/safetensors) is a different format
from the classic `.bin` which uses Pytorch which uses pickle.
Pickle is notoriously unsafe which allow any malicious file to execute arbitrary code.
The hub itself tries to prevent issues from it, but it's not a silver bullet.
`safetensors` first and foremost goal is to make loading machine learning models *safe*
in the sense that no takeover of your computer can be done.
# Why use safetensors ?
**Safety** can be one reason, if you're attempting to use a not well known model and
you're not sure about the source of the file.
And a secondary reason, is **the speed of loading**. Safetensors can load models much faster
than regular pickle files. If you spend a lot of times switching models, this can be
a huge timesave.
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