News Overview

We are happy to announce the public talk by Anil Ananthaswamy, HITS Journalist in Residence 2023, titled “ChatGPT and its ilk - The rise of large language models and why we should care”. The event will take place on July 5, 2023, 7pm at the “MAINS” (Mathematik-Informatik-Station), located near the main station.

In his talk, organized in collaboration with the Hei­del­berg Laureate Forum Foundation, Anil Ananthaswamy will explain the foundations of large language models (LLMs), their training process and their impact on society. He will discuss the curious emergent properties of these AI models, such as their ability to solve math problems despite not being explicitly trained for it. The question of whether LLMs possess genuine reasoning capabilities or merely engage in sophisticated pattern matching will be examined. The talk will also highlight the dangers of large language models, as they are currently designed, and why it’s important for society to become aware of the promises and perils of such AIs, as the technology has reached a point of no return.

Anil Ananthaswamy, currently serving as “HITS Journalist in Residence” at Hei­del­berg Institute for Theo­re­ti­cal Studies (HITS), is an award-winning science journalist and author. With his extensive expertise in science communication, he has contributed to reputable publications such as the New Scientist, Quanta, Scientific American and Nature, among others. Leveraging his background as a software engineer and his authorship of three popular science books, Ananthaswamy brings unique perspectives to his analysis.

Further information:

• Talk announcement by HITS
• Event webpage by MAINS