How Language Models Work

Lesson 13

The whole picture

One loop, end to end.

Thirteen lessons, one machine. Follow a single message all the way through. Every stop is something you’ve already seen up close.

Five things to actually do differently

  1. 1 Check any specific fact that matters. Names, numbers, quotes, citations, court cases. It invents these in the exact tone it uses for real ones.
  2. 2 Don’t trust it with arithmetic. Use a calculator, or ask it to work step by step. It’s guessing digit chunks, not computing.
  3. 3 Start a fresh chat when one gets long or weird. Paste in a short summary of what matters. The window fills up, and old turns silently fall out.
  4. 4 Show one example and name your format. “Like this, as a bulleted list, skip the preamble.” This is the single biggest quality upgrade available to you.
  5. 5 For anything recent or private, give it the source. Paste the document, or use a tool that searches. Its own knowledge stopped at training time.

Screenshot this part.

The thirteen ideas, one line each