How ChatGPT Works and Why It Matters

• Carlos Soto (BNL)

**Abstract**: The release last November of OpenAI’s ChatGPT had a profound impact on the public’s perception of and access to powerful AI tools. While the entire fields of Machine Learning (ML) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) have advanced tremendously in recent years, no other developments therein have prompted quite the level of attention, investment, disruption, and backlash that ChatGPT – and the surge of related AI tools emerging in its wake – has managed in a very short time. ChatGPT belongs to a class of ML methods called Large Language Models (LLMs) which are seeing rapidly-increased usage in industry and research. Already, numerous projects across BNL and DOE are exploiting these tools, and their scientific reach and scope appears likely to continue growing. In this light and high-level talk, I will discuss the highly influential ChatGPT model, explain how it works, and discuss what it and other LLMs could mean for science and the broader world.