What Can Language Models Actually Do?

🌈 Abstract

The article discusses the capabilities of language models, particularly their ability to compress and summarize text. It explores how language models can transform text in various ways, such as compression, expansion, translation, and remixing. The author focuses on the compression capabilities of language models, highlighting their ability to create comprehensive summaries, engaging headlines, and compressions along different dimensions.

🙋 Q&A

[01] Language Models as Text Compressors

1. What are the key ways in which language models can compress text?

• Comprehensive compression or summarization: Language models can take a source text and produce a concise summary of the main ideas and plot points.
• Engaging compression: Language models can generate interesting and attention-grabbing headlines, titles, and subtitles that capture the essence of the source text.
• Compression along different dimensions: Language models can produce compressions with various styles and tones, such as clickbait, intrigue, sarcasm, absurdism, and more.

2. How does the author view the usefulness of language model compression in creative work?

• Comprehensive compressions can be useful for quickly sampling ideas and concepts without a deep investment of time and attention.
• Deeper compressions that capture nuance and complexity can help creatives go beyond just skimming the surface of a topic.
• The author sees language model compression as a superpower for creatives, as it allows them to access the best of human knowledge in the right format for their needs.

[02] The Broader Implications of Language Model Capabilities

1. How does the author view language models in the context of the history of knowledge dissemination?

• The author sees language models as the latest step in a trend that started with writing, then extended to the printing press and the internet, allowing knowledge to be accessed and shared more widely.
• Language models are described as "cultural technologies" that give creatives access to the best of human knowledge, compressed in the right format for their needs.

2. How does the author suggest creatives can leverage language model capabilities?

• The author suggests that creatives can use language model compression to understand complex works they don't have time to read in-depth, by generating concise summaries and analyses.
• The author implies that by understanding the different compression capabilities of language models, creatives can wield them as a powerful tool to support and enhance their own creative work.