LLM Evolution
The history and trajectory of large language models — from pre-transformer foundations through the 2025 frontier.
Start Module 01Curriculum
A structured path through the course content.
Pre-Transformer Foundations
RNNs, LSTMs, seq2seq, and the path to attention.
The Transformer Revolution
Attention is all you need and the transformer breakthrough.
The BERT Ecosystem
BERT, RoBERTa, and the encoder-model era.
The Scaling Era
GPT-3, scaling laws, and the emergence of capabilities.
Alignment & the ChatGPT Moment
RLHF, InstructGPT, and the ChatGPT phenomenon.
The 2023 Model Boom
GPT-4, open models, and the explosion of LLM development.
The 2024 Frontier Race
Claude 3, Gemini, and the frontier model competition.
Reasoning & Inference Scaling
Chain-of-thought, o1, and inference-time compute.
Cost Revolution & Global Competition
DeepSeek, cost reduction, and international competition.
The Small Model Revolution
Phi, Mistral, and efficient small language models.
The 2025 Frontier
Current frontier models and emerging capabilities.
Architectural Innovation Threads
MoE, state space models, and architectural evolution.
Training Innovation Threads
Training techniques, data curation, and optimization advances.
Multimodal Evolution
Vision-language models and multimodal capabilities.
The LLM Landscape
The current state and future trajectory of LLMs.