Curiously Code Talk Lounge - With Guest Speaker (Olga Zyuzina, AI QA Engineer)

Curiously Code Talk Lounge
Join us at our Curiously Code Talk Lounge. In our talk lounges, we invite special guest speakers to give us a curious insight into different topics in all things tech and digital.

In today's talk lounge, we are pleased to be hosting our special guest speaker Olga Zyuzina.

Talk Title: "From Zero to GPT: How Large Language Models Actually Work".

Description: Large language models can feel like magic, but they're built on surprisingly understandable concepts. This talk takes you from the basics (how do models even "read" text?) through the key innovations that make modern AI possible. We'll explore tokenization, embeddings, attention mechanisms, and the transformer architecture that powers GPT and similar models.

About Olga

Name: Olga Zyuzina
Bio: Olga is an AI QA Engineer who's worked across the ML lifecycle - from research and model development to testing LLMs in production. With a background spanning traditional software testing and machine learning engineering, she's passionate about making AI systems reliable and trustworthy.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olga-zyuzina-81a34893/

In the second half of the event, we will be running our usual coding lounge.

You can join us in-person on Thursday 19th February 2026 at 18:00:00 GMT.

In-Person: Generator Hub in Exeter

Venue Accessibility
Please note that the venue, Generator Hub, is held at The Gallery, Kings Wharf, The Quay, Exeter, EX2 4AN. There are lifts inside the building, but there are a few steps down to the Generator space. There is an entrance by the car park (Watergate entrance, EX2 4DE). If you need any assistance, please let us know in advance and we can accommodate as much as we can.

By attending this event, you agree to our Code of Conduct. This Curiously Code Community Code of Conduct is available to view in PDF here.