Large Language Models and Nearest Neighbors

Instead of jumping on the latest trend of the week, I wanted to dive into a recent, fascinating application of nearest-neighbor methods in the context of large language models (LLMs) that made big waves in July.

You may know that I like simple yet elegant and baselines, but I also found this method quite refreshing given that most of the current research is about scaling already massive LLMs. While they may not scale to all kinds of problems where LLMs currently excel, seemingly simple methods such as nearest neighbor algorithms have a certain beauty to them. It also shows that there are still many opportunities to innovate and make significant contributions based on foundational or "classic" techniques.

Nearest Neighbors in a Nutshell

Nearest neighbor methods are one of the fundamental methods in data mining, pattern recognition, and machine learning. They…