LLM 101: Opportunities and Challenges

Large Language Models (LLM) are a recent innovation in natural language processing (NLP) technology that employ transformer architectures pre-trained on massive amounts of digital text scraped from the Internet. As a result, applications like OpenAI’s ChatGPT as well as Anthropic’s Claude, and Google’s Gemini can now generate original content that is, in many cases, indistinguishable from human written material. In this presentation delivered on February 5, 2025, Professor David J. Gunkel (NIU Professor and Chair of the Department of Communication) 1) demystifies the technology of LLMs by providing an accessible explanation of the inner workings of these algorithms, 2) evaluates the costs and benefits of machine generated content in different areas of human communication, and 3) explores the impact these technologies are likely to have on writing and its future. In effect, the presentation asks and seeks to respond to these questions: Does an LLM application like ChatGPT write? Do these algorithms know or understand what they are saying? And if so (or if not), how will this affect and/or alter our understanding of human communication and writing?

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