Simply Scaling Data Won't Unlock New AI Capabilities
gabriberton · x · 2026-07-13
The author argues that simply continuing to scale up training data will not automatically lead to capability improvements.
As an example, training an LLM on 1000T tokens of Harry Potter-style fan fiction won't teach it to code or do math. This serves as a strong reminder for those who interpret the "bitter lesson" too mechanically: data scaling isn't a silver bullet; the nature of the training corpus and capability transfer remain crucial.
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