diff --git a/applications/DeepSpeed-Chat/dschat/utils/model/model_utils.py b/applications/DeepSpeed-Chat/dschat/utils/model/model_utils.py
index 050819a22..0a37fa299 100644
--- a/applications/DeepSpeed-Chat/dschat/utils/model/model_utils.py
+++ b/applications/DeepSpeed-Chat/dschat/utils/model/model_utils.py
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@
 )
 from huggingface_hub import snapshot_download
 from transformers.integrations.deepspeed import HfDeepSpeedConfig
+from transformers.modeling_utils import no_init_weights
 
 from dschat.utils.model.reward_model import RewardModel
 from dschat.utils.utils import load_state_dict_into_model, print_rank_0
@@ -99,7 +100,8 @@ def create_hf_model(model_class,
         dschf = None
     if rlhf_training:
         # the weight loading is handled by create critic model
-        model = model_class.from_config(model_config)
+        with no_init_weights():
+            model = model_class.from_config(model_config)
     else:
         model = model_class.from_pretrained(
             model_name_or_path,