Transformers as a Computational Model - What Was Revolutionized by the "Transformer Revolution?"

Explore a 44-minute lecture by Stella Biderman from ElutherAI, delivered at the Simons Institute, examining the impact of the "Transformer Revolution" on machine learning and computer science. Delve into the argument that the transformer architecture has catalyzed a paradigm shift in machine learning process development, rather than being inherently special. Discover how this shift has generated new research questions, with insights from Biderman's recent papers covering topics such as memorization, mechanistic interpretability, and evaluation science. Gain a deeper understanding of transformers as a computational model and their role in the rapid evolution of large-scale generative artificial intelligence.