How LLMs Are Actually Built You use ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini every day. But do you actually know what happens before an AI model can answer your questions? LLMs are generally built through three major stages: 1. Pre-training The model processes massive amounts of text and learns patterns by predicting what comes next. This is where it develops its broad knowledge and language capabilities. 2. Post-training The base model is taught to follow instructions and produce more useful responses. Techniques like supervised fine-tuning and LoRA can be used here. 3. Alignment The model learns preferences, boundaries and behaviors that make its responses safer and more helpful. Methods include RLHF, DPO and other preference or reward-based approaches. The easiest way to remember it: Pre-training = Learn Post-training = Improve Alignment = Behave And the next time an AI model gives you a weird answer, ask yourself: Is it missing knowledge? Is the behavior wrong? Or is it failing to foll...