Core Viewpoint - The article discusses the advancements in reasoning capabilities of large language models (LLMs) and introduces the book "Reasoning From Scratch" by Sebastian Raschka, which aims to provide practical insights into building reasoning models from the ground up [2][5][59]. Group 1: Definition and Importance of Reasoning in LLMs - Reasoning in the context of LLMs refers to the model's ability to generate intermediate steps before arriving at a final answer, often described as chain-of-thought (CoT) reasoning [8][10]. - The distinction between reasoning and pattern matching is crucial, as traditional LLMs primarily rely on statistical correlations rather than logical reasoning [23][25]. - Understanding reasoning methods is essential for enhancing LLMs' capabilities to tackle complex tasks, such as solving logical puzzles or multi-step arithmetic problems [5][39]. Group 2: Training Process of LLMs - The typical training process for LLMs consists of two main phases: pre-training and fine-tuning [16][19]. - During pre-training, LLMs are trained on vast amounts of unlabelled text (up to several terabytes) to learn language patterns, which can cost millions of dollars and take months [17][21]. - Fine-tuning involves supervised fine-tuning (SFT) and preference fine-tuning to improve the model's ability to respond to user queries [20][21]. Group 3: Pattern Matching vs. Logical Reasoning - LLMs learn to predict the next token based on statistical patterns in the training data, which allows them to generate coherent text but lacks true understanding [23][24]. - In contrast, logical reasoning requires the ability to derive conclusions step-by-step, identifying contradictions and causal relationships [25][26]. - The article highlights that most LLMs do not actively identify contradictions but instead rely on learned patterns from training data [30][34]. Group 4: Enhancing Reasoning Capabilities - The reasoning capabilities of LLMs gained significant attention with the release of OpenAI's o1 model, which emphasizes a more human-like thought process [41][43]. - Enhancements to LLM reasoning can be achieved through inference-time compute scaling, reinforcement learning, and knowledge distillation [44][46][48]. - These methods aim to improve the model's reasoning ability without retraining the underlying model weights [46][48]. Group 5: Importance of Building Reasoning Models from Scratch - Building reasoning models from scratch provides valuable insights into the capabilities, limitations, and computational trade-offs of LLMs [50][57]. - The shift towards reasoning models reflects a broader trend in the AI industry, emphasizing the need for models that can handle complex tasks effectively [52][55]. - Understanding the underlying mechanisms of LLMs and reasoning models is crucial for optimizing their performance in various applications [57].