Can gzip be a language model? https:// lobste.rs/s/j11pew # ai https:// nathan.rs/posts/gzip-lm/
A blog post explores the concept of using the GZIP compression algorithm as a language model, drawing parallels between compression and prediction. The author demonstrates that by priming GZIP with a text corpus, it can generate continuations that exhibit some coherence, albeit not perfectly. This is achieved by leveraging the DEFLATE algorithm's byte-matching mechanism, where predictable sequences compress to fewer bytes, effectively acting as a probability model. AI
IMPACT Explores an unconventional approach to language modeling, highlighting the link between compression and prediction.