LLMs for Devs: Model Selection, Hallucinations, Agents, AGI – Jodie Burchell | The Marco Show

Jodie Burchell (Data Scientist) joins Marco to cut through the hype around large language models. From GPT and Gemini to Claude and beyond — how do you really choose the right one? Benchmarks, context length, hallucinations, ethics, and AGI predictions — all on the table.

If you’ve ever asked yourself, “Which LLM should I use for my work?” — this conversation will help you see past the hype.

💡 Topics in this episode:

• How to compare LLMs for different developer tasks
• Enhanced vs adaptive thinking (is it just branding?)
• Corporate considerations: cost, privacy, and hosting
• The ethics and lawsuits shaping AI’s future
• Predictions for AGI

⏱️Timestamps:

(00:00:00) Teaser

(00:00:37) Intro

(00:01:08) From PhD and academia to data science at JetBrains

(00:02:31) Early NLP versus modern LLMs

(00:04:46) From LSTMs to Transformers (BERT and GPT)

(00:08:49) The DeepSeek surprise and model scaling limits

(00:12:25) Benchmarks, assessments, and confusion for end users

(00:17:18) Choosing models in practice

(00:21:10) “Thinking” models and reasoning limits

(00:23:48) Do you really need the newest model?

(00:25:58) Hallucinations and how to handle them

(00:28:30) Agents and RAG: real-world applications

(00:32:55) Vibe coding: hype versus reality

(00:37:46) What are AI agents? Tools, MCP, and multi-agent apps

(00:43:01) Self-hosting versus proprietary models

(00:45:20) Fine-tuning explained and Hugging Face

(00:50:17) Building reliable AI apps (tests, A/B, traces)

(00:55:33) Privacy, company data, and self-hosting concerns

(00:58:37) Ethical issues: data sourcing and labor

(01:04:23) Environmental costs and the push for smaller models

(01:06:26) Juniors, skills, and the future of coding with AI

(01:09:15) Learning fundamentals in the age of LLMs

(01:13:24) AGI: definitions, timelines, and Jodie’s twenty euro bet

(01:20:03) Rapid-fire questions: slang, food, and culture

(01:25:47) Giveaway

(01:26:26) Outro

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LinkedIn: jodieburchell

Bluesky: @t-redactyl.bsky.social

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