How do large language models like GPT-4 actually work?

Large language models like GPT-4 are like super-smart helpers who know how to write stories, answer questions, and even chat with you, all by learning from lots of words.

Imagine you're teaching your little brother how to read. You show him many books, and he learns what letters mean and how they can make whole sentences. GPT-4 does something similar, but it learns from millions of sentences on the internet.

GPT-4 reads so many words that it starts to notice patterns, like when one word usually comes after another. It's like learning the rules of a game by watching others play it over and over again.

Once GPT-4 knows these patterns, it can guess what should come next when you start writing something. If you say "The cat sat on the," it might guess "mat" because that's a common ending. It does this for every word in a sentence, making up whole paragraphs just by following the rules it learned.

It’s not magic, it’s like having a very smart friend who has read everything and now helps you write your own stories!