Simon Willison gave a talk on the development of Large Language Models (LLMs) at North Bay Python. He covers various aspects of LLMs, including their definition, functionality, training process, and challenges. Willison explains that LLMs can be thought of as files or functions that can complete text and provide answers. He also discusses the timeline of LLM advancements, such as the introduction of GPT-1, GPT-2, and GPT-3. Willison highlights the fascinating capabilities of LLMs, the difficulty in understanding and using them effectively, and their applications in code-writing and other tasks. He also mentions different LLM models available, such as ChatGPT, GPT-4, Claude 2, and Llama 2. The talk emphasizes the need to understand and navigate the complexities of LLMs for optimal utilization.
https://simonwillison.net/2023/Aug/3/weird-world-of-llms/