What is Parameters?

Each parameter is a single number in the network. Training = adjusting these numbers until the model's next-word predictions get good. "70B" means seventy billion such numbers — the model's learned knowledge is in them, which is why a model is a file you download rather than a program you read.

Bigger used to mean better. Modern smaller models trained on better data routinely beat older giants — size is one axis of quality, not the scoreboard. Related: fine-tuning adjusts these same parameters on your examples.