Mar. 14, 2024 – Mariel Pettee: What do language models have to say about physics?

The launch of ChatGPT in November 2022 ignited an ongoing worldwide conversation about the possible impacts of Large Language Models (LLMs) on the way we work. There is little doubt that LLMs will significantly influence many people's jobs: one prominent study estimated that about 20% of the US workforce could soon see about 50% of their daily tasks influenced by these models. As scientists, however, the changes in our workflows since the advent of this technology have been relatively minor.

Will this still be the case in 10 years? Could an analogous paradigm shift arise from a foundation model trained on a large amount of scientific data, transforming the way we conduct our research? If so, what can we learn from the development of other foundation models, particularly LLMs, in their evolution from specialists to (quasi-)generalists? In this talk, I will present some recent work exploring how language models could form a foundation model of fundamental physics. I'll also share my perspective on how we should strive to shape such models to reflect our highest priorities as scientists.