What is a Large Language Model (LLM)?

A Large Language Model (LLM) is a type of artificial intelligence system designed to process and generate natural language text. These models are powered by vast amounts of data and sophisticated algorithms that help them understand and mimic human language.

What Does a LLM Do?

LLMs are used to:

• Generate human-like text in response to prompts

• Answer questions

• Write essays, articles, or stories

• Assist in translations, summarizations, and more.

A Familiar Example: ChatGPT

Chances are, you have heard of ChatGPT. This is one of the most popular examples of a Large Language Model. When you interact with ChatGPT, you’re engaging with an LLM that has been trained on massive datasets to understand and generate text based on context.

How Do LLMs Work?

At the core of an LLM is its ability to analyze large datasets. These datasets include:

• Books

• Articles

• Webpages

• Other forms of written text

By analyzing these texts, LLMs are able to learn patterns such as grammar, semantics (meaning), language structure, and context. They essentially "learn" how language works by finding correlations between words, phrases, and sentences.

The Auto-Regressive Principle

LLMs are based on auto-regressive models. This means:

• Prediction of next words: The model predicts the next word in a sequence based on the previous words.

• It uses context to determine what should come next, ensuring that the generated text makes sense within the broader conversation or document.

Activity for you

Think of a sentence or question you would ask a chatbot powered by an LLM. How would the system generate the most appropriate answer?