LLMs for Devs: Model Selection, Hallucinations, Agents, AGI – Jodie Burchell | The Marco Show
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 tasksEnhanced vs adaptive thinking (is it just branding?)Corporate considerations: cost, privacy, and hostingThe ethics and lawsuits shaping AI’s futurePredictions 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) OutroNew episodes every other Wednesday. Subscribe for more deep, developer-focused conversations.Watch the episodes on YouTube: https://jb.gg/themarco.show-youtubeFollow Jodie Burchell:LinkedIn: jodieburchellBluesky: @t-redactyl.bsky.socialMastodon: @
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