Lawletter Vol  48 No. 3

ChatGPT, LLMs, and Legal Research

Brett R. Turner—Senior Attorney

What Is ChatGPT? What Are LLMs?

     ChatGPT is one particular brand of a large language model, or LLM. LLMs are a recent technological advance in how computers and humans communicate with one another. In one direction, LLMs parse plain-language instructions and convert them into language which a computer can understand. In the opposite direction, LLMs allow computers to translate their output into ordinary language for humans, including not only sentences but also entire written products, such as memos or briefs.

     More specifically, LLMs work by starting with certain words (the prompt) and finding other words which are associated with those words in certain training material. An algorithm is then used to convert the chosen words into a product using ordinary human language.

    ChatGPT has been analogized to the automatic chat bots found on many support websites. The software begins with a prompt, scans through a specific list of documents, and produces the content of those materials in ordinary human language.