Large Language Models (LLMs) 💬
The AI that can chat, write code, and create content — but doesn't really "understand"
🤖 What are Large Language Models?
The Simple Answer: LLMs are AI systems that are really, REALLY good at predicting what word comes next.
That's it! Seriously.
But being incredibly good at this one task lets them do amazing things:
- Write essays
- Answer questions
- Translate languages
- Write computer code
- Have conversations
How Do They Work?
Step 1: Read the entire internet
- Books, websites, code, conversations
- Billions and billions of words
- Takes months and millions of dollars
Step 2: Learn patterns
- "After 'The cat sat on the...' usually comes 'mat' or 'floor'"
- "Questions that start with 'How to...' usually get answers with steps"
- "Code that starts with 'function...' usually has '' brackets"
Step 3: Generate text
- You type: "Write a poem about dogs"
- LLM thinks: "Poems about animals usually start with..."
- Generates: "Golden fur in morning light..."
- Predicts next word: "dancing"
- Continues: "through the park so..."
- And so on!
The Magic Trick
LLMs are SO GOOD at predicting patterns that they seem to understand. But they don't!
They're like a parrot that's heard every conversation in the world and can remix them perfectly. Impressive? Yes! Conscious understanding? No!
What's "Large" About Them?
Parameters: The "knobs" the AI adjusts while learning
- Small model: 1 million parameters (can barely form sentences)
- Medium model: 1 billion parameters (can chat reasonably)
- Large model: 100+ billion parameters (can fool you into thinking it's human)
More parameters = better predictions (usually)