The basics of GenAI: Theory and practice

This training is designed to provide you with a deeper insight into the fundamental workings of Large Language Models, which form the basis of many seminal Generative AI applications such as ChatGPT.

The training consists of a morning lecture and afternoon workshop:

10:00-12:00 ‘Understanding the basics of Generative AI’
This 2-hour lecture outlines the fundamental algorithmic structure of Large Language Models to clarify both the impressive capacities and remaining limitations of these models. It highlights why small changes in prompts can cause substantial differences in model behavior, and how LLMs can be used both with randomness or deterministically.

13:00-15:30 ‘Best practices for using Generative AI for academic research’
This workshop utilizes the insights of the morning lecture to teach best practices for using Generative AI to support academic research. Going beyond prompt engineering, it highlights effective workflows which consider both the basic limitations of LLMs as well as their versatile output formats.
Practical examples include data conversion, code generation, and various Natural Language Processing tasks such as summarization, literature review, and academic rewriting.

This course is organised by the Antwerp Doctoral School, with the support of VAIA.

A limited number of places is reserved for doctoral researchers from other Flemish universities. PhD researchers who are not affiliated with the University of Antwerp can register by sending an email to adscourses@uantwerpen.be.