Jodie Burchell (Data Scientist) joins Marco to cut through the hype around large language models. From GPT and Gemini to Claude and beyond — how do you really choose the right one? Benchmarks, context length, hallucinations, ethics, and AGI predictions — all on the table.

If you’ve ever asked yourself, “Which LLM should I use for my work?” — this conversation will help you see past the hype.

💡 Topics in this episode:

• How to compare LLMs for different developer tasks
• Enhanced vs adaptive thinking (is it just branding?)
• Corporate considerations: cost, privacy, and hosting
• The ethics and lawsuits shaping AI’s future
• Predictions for AGI

⏱️Timestamps:

(00:00:00 ) Teaser

(00:00:37 ) Intro

(00:01:08 ) From PhD and academia to data science at JetBrains

(00:02:31 ) Early NLP versus modern LLMs

(00:04:46 ) From LSTMs to Transformers (BERT and GPT)

(00:08:49 ) The DeepSeek surprise and model scaling limits

(00:12:25 ) Benchmarks, assessments, and confusion for end users

(00:17:18 ) Choosing models in practice

(00:21:10 ) “Thinking” models and reasoning limits

(00:23:48 ) Do you really need the newest model?

(00:25:58 ) Hallucinations and how to handle them

(00:28:30 ) Agents and RAG: real-world applications

(00:32:55 ) Vibe coding: hype versus reality

(00:37:46 ) What are AI agents? Tools, MCP, and multi-agent apps

(00:43:01 ) Self-hosting versus proprietary models

(00:45:20 ) Fine-tuning explained and Hugging Face

(00:50:17 ) Building reliable AI apps (tests, A/B, traces)

(00:55:33 ) Privacy, company data, and self-hosting concerns

(00:58:37 ) Ethical issues: data sourcing and labor

(01:04:23 ) Environmental costs and the push for smaller models

(01:06:26 ) Juniors, skills, and the future of coding with AI

(01:09:15 ) Learning fundamentals in the age of LLMs

(01:13:24 ) AGI: definitions, timelines, and Jodie’s twenty euro bet

(01:20:03 ) Rapid-fire questions: slang, food, and culture

(01:25:47 ) Giveaway

(01:26:26 ) Outro

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LinkedIn: jodieburchell

Bluesky: @t-redactyl.bsky.social

Mastodon: @t_redactyl@fosstodon.org

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