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Can gzip be a language model?

414 points · 165 comments · networked

  1. networked · · focus · HN ↗
    I was curious to see how this would work with bzip2 and zstd. The source is public at <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;nathanrs&#x2F;gzipt" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;nathanrs&#x2F;gzipt, and I asked MiMo-V2.6-Flash to fork and modify it in a straightforward way. The answer is that bzip2 produces sequences that don&#x27;t resemble human language:

      gzipt \
          --corpus data&#x2F;tinyshakespeare.txt \  
          --prompt $&#x27;MENENIUS:\n&#x27; \
          --length 200 \
          ;
      
      MENENIUS:
      MtLUMSeptuttyyyxyxyxyxyvyyyxyxyxyxyvyyyxyxyxyxywyvzyxyxyx
      yyxyyyxyxyxyxyxPlyxyxyxyxyxyxyxyxyxtoxzfTUS.zxzzzyzzzvzzz
      vzzzxvzyvyxyxyxyvyxyxyxyvy--,Vdvyxyxyxyxyxyxyxyxyxxy!zFlx
      zzyyxyxyxyvyxyxyxyvyySPffuyuy
    
    Line breaks added. This looks roughly optimized for the most repetitive Burrows-Wheeler transform (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Burrows%E2%80%93Wheeler_transform" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Burrows%E2%80%93Wheeler_transf...). Why are they runs of alternating symbols and not one symbol?

    Zstandard produces whitespace with the occasional letter thrown in. To quote MiMo: &quot;As you can see, zstd does not speak Shakespeare. ... zstd encodes a run of one repeated byte as a near-free run-length sequence, and space and newline are the cheapest literals in the corpus: ten newlines cost about the same to append ten bytes of genuine corpus text and less than nonsense does.&quot;

    1. jeremyjh · · focus · HN ↗
      So, you had an AI write code you don&#x27;t understand, then posted output you don&#x27;t understand in a comment on the internet for other humans to read?
      1. [deleted] · · focus · HN ↗

        [deleted]

      2. [deleted] · · focus · HN ↗

        [deleted]

      3. Dylan16807 · · focus · HN ↗
        No, they used AI to write code they do understand, then posted interesting results they (partially) don&#x27;t understand for other humans to see.
        1. jeremyjh · · focus · HN ↗
          Then why attribute the work to MiMo? People mostly only attribute the model when they&#x27;ve outsourced the understanding along with the coding. If I understand the code I don&#x27;t bother to mention the tools I used to create it.
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