Large Language Models: A New Era of Natural Language Processing

This blog post discovers how Large Language Models (LLMs) are revolutionising Natural Language Processing (NLP). It explores their capabilities, common providers, and potential risks. And, understand how to harness the power of LLMs while mitigating risks for ethical and effective AI applications.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Ratika Singh, CFA

8/27/20241 min read

two hands touching each other in front of a pink background
two hands touching each other in front of a pink background

Large Language Models (LLMs) have altered the field of Natural Language Processing (NLP). These advanced AI models, trained on vast datasets, can understand, generate, and manipulate human language in ways that were once thought impossible.

What are Large Language Models?

LLMs are advanced deep learning models designed to process and generate text. By being trained on massive amounts of text data, they grasp patterns, grammar, and semantics, allowing them to execute a range of tasks, including:

Translation: LLMs are capable of translating text between languages with remarkable precision.

Summarisation: They can condense lengthy documents into succinct summaries.

Question Answering: LLMs can answer questions based on their understanding of the text.

Text Generation: They can generate creative and informative content, such as articles, poems, and code.

Common Open-Source Providers
  • Haystack: A framework for building and deploying NLP applications using LLMs

  • Hugging Face: A popular platform for building and training machine learning models, especially in the NLP domain

  • Transformers: A state-of-the-art library for building and training deep learning models for NLP tasks

  • AllenNLP: Another framework for building NLP models, focusing on research and reproducibility

  • SpaCy: A Python library for natural language processing, known for its speed and efficiency

  • Gensim: A Python library for topic modeling, document similarity, and indexing

Risks of Using Open-Source Providers

While these providers offer significant benefits, there are also potential risks:

  • Data Privacy and Security: Data exposure, misuse, and compliance challenges

  • Vendor Lock-in: Dependency on a single provider and limited control

  • Model Bias and Fairness: Inherent biases in training data and ethical considerations

  • Technical Limitations: Model capacity and potential for generating incorrect information

  • Cost: Infrastructure and API costs

  • Intellectual Property: Ownership and licensing issues

Mitigating Risks

To minimise risks, consider:

  • Data anonymisation or encryption

  • Regular audits and security assessments

  • Building in-house capabilities

  • Bias mitigation techniques

  • Ethical guidelines

By carefully evaluating these risks and taking appropriate measures, you can maximise the benefits of using LLMs while minimising potential negative consequences.