Introduction
Large Language Models (LLMs) like GPT-4, Claude, and Llama are deep learning models trained on vast amounts of text data. They are capable of understanding and generating human-like text, translating languages, writing code, and much more.
The Transformer Architecture
Modern LLMs are built on the Transformer architecture, introduced by Google in 2017. The key innovation of transformers is the attention mechanism, which allows the model to weigh the importance of different words in a sentence, regardless of their distance from each other.
Hallucinations
A critical concept to grasp when working with LLMs is "hallucination." Because LLMs predict the most likely next word rather than querying a factual database, they can confidently generate false or nonsensical information. Learning how to mitigate hallucinations is a core skill in AI engineering.
Assignment
- Read The Illustrated Transformer by Jay Alammar to understand the basics of the transformer architecture visually.
- Research the common causes of LLM hallucinations and ways to minimize them.