(Quanta) – Larger models can pull off a wider variety of feats, but the reduced footprint of smaller models makes them attractive tools.

Small models are not used as general-purpose tools like their larger cousins. But they can excel on specific, more narrowly defined tasks, such as summarizing conversations, answering patient questions as a health care chatbot and gathering data in smart devices. “For a lot of tasks, an 8 billion parameter model is actually pretty good,” said Zico Kolter, a computer scientist at Carnegie Mellon University. They can also run on a laptop or cellphone, instead of a huge data center. (There’s no consensus on the exact definition of “small,” but the new models all max out around 10 billion parameters.) (Read More)