What are the key types of LLMs?

There are many ways to classify large language models depending on their goals, training, algorithms, etc. One model can belong to several types, and one software product can contain LLMs of different types required by their target audience.

Here are the key and examples of large language models in the market:

• General-purpose LLMs are versatile models trained to handle various language tasks, from answering questions to conducting research. Such models require diverse datasets, enabling them to understand and generate text for multiple domains and contexts. The most well-known examples of general-purpose LLMs are GPT and BERT.
• Domain-specific LLMs are trained to work within a specific line of work, such as healthcare, law, or software development. Training datasets for such models are focused on a domain’s terminology, patterns, context, etc. Domain-specific LLMs still can respond to general prompts, but they often provide an incoherent response to requests that lie outside their expertise. Examples of such models are Med-PaLM, LawGPT, and BloombergGPT.
• Few-shot LLMs are trained to provide useful responses with a limited amount of relevant labeled data. This type of model focuses on AI’s ability to learn and adapt to new challenges. Few-shot LLMs can be both general and domain-specific. They are used when it’s impossible or unprofitable to collect a dataset. Examples of such LLMs are T5X and CLIP.
• Task-specific LLMs are designed to carry out a particular type of language task: sentiment analysis, translation, question answering, etc. Similarly to domain-specific LLMs, these models use a particular set of training data and can’t provide quality results for tasks outside their expertise. ALBERT and BART are common examples of task-specific LLMs.

Organizations from different industries benefit from different types of LLMs. For example, retail and media companies can use general-purpose models to translate their texts and communicate with a wide audience in real time. Healthcare, financial, and software development organizations can use domain-specific and task-specific LLMs to carry out highly professional activities. Educational facilities can provide virtual tutoring to their students using few-shot LLMs.

In the full article on our blog, we analyze practical LLM use cases across industries.