Instruction Tuning

Module: fundamentals

What it is

Instruction tuning is fine-tuning a model on examples of instructions paired with appropriate responses. This teaches the model to follow directions rather than just complete text. The model learns to interpret what users want and provide relevant, formatted responses.

Why it matters

Instruction tuning is why you can give AI commands and expect them to be followed. Without it, a model might continue your text in unpredictable ways rather than answering your question. It's a key step in turning a base language model into a useful assistant.