A big early training stage gives a model general skills from huge data.
Pretraining is like a kid binge-watching every how-to video online. No chores yet. First, fill the brain.
It helps the model learn language, plus facts and patterns. Fine-tuning and real apps build on this base.
Foundation-model
Pretraining gives a Foundation-model most of its general skills.
Parameter
Pretraining keeps updating Parameters with huge amounts of data.
Scaling-law
Scaling-law pushes pretraining toward more data and bigger runs.
GPU
Pretraining needs more GPU power as it gets bigger.