**Office:**320F Interchurch Building (61 Claremont Avenue)
Office hours: Monday 1:00-2:00pm
Email: [email protected]
Office: CEPSR 721
Office hours: Wednesdays and Fridays 2:00-3:00pm
Email: [email protected]
Large Language Models (LLMs) such as GPT-3, ChatGPT, LLaMA are models that are trained on large amounts of data and are adaptable to a wide range of tasks. They are the basis of most state-of-the-art systems in Natural Language Processing. While the potential of these technologies for social good is large, the risks are also comparable. In this course, the students will learn the fundamentals about the modeling, theory and ethical aspects of LLMs and their applications, while gaining experience working with them. The course will be structured as a seminar, where one class is dedicated to instructor-led lecture and one to student-led discussion of papers around topics covered in the lecture. Each paper discussion will be structured as a panel of 3-4 students, each with an assigned role. Each panel role covers one aspect of critically assessing an academic/industry paper. Everyone in the class should participate by commenting and asking questions from the panel. The class is project-based, meaning there will be a semester-long project focused on evaluating LLMs and/or building LLMs around a topic/problem/task you care about, with an end of semester final paper. The projects will be done by groups of 2-3 students.
Prerequisite(s): COMS W3134 or W3136 or W3137 (or equivalent).
<aside> 💡 [Due 3/27/2024 11:59pm EST] Midterm report deadline extended to March 27, 2024.
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<aside> 💡 [Due 2/21/2024 10:10am EST, before class] Project proposal due (see class CourseWorks for assignment and instructions).
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<aside> 💡 [Due 2/5/2024 11:59pm EST] Project teaming due (see class CourseWorks for link to Signup. You can use class Slack for finding teammates also.
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<aside> 💡 [Due 1/26/2024 11:59 EST] The signup spreadsheet for selecting papers and roles for discussion will be up in class 1/24/2024 (posted as announcement on CourseWorks and class slides). Students will pick two papers throughout the semesters with two different roles (more details in class and on CourseWork announcement).
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<aside> 💡 [Due 01/19/2024 11:59pm EST] Please fill in the First Class Survey for the class even if you are on the waitlist and also even if you filled in the form to sign up for class. We would like to understand in more detail your background, skills and what you hope to learn from this class.
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Some topics/readings might be subject to change
This is a seminar-type class, with two main activities: