{"version":1,"type":"story","url":"https://digestai.news/story/researchers-retrofit-llms-to-count-letters-using-byteification","json":"https://digestai.news/story/researchers-retrofit-llms-to-count-letters-using-byteification.json","markdown":"https://digestai.news/story/researchers-retrofit-llms-to-count-letters-using-byteification.md","slug":"researchers-retrofit-llms-to-count-letters-using-byteification","headline":"Researchers retrofit LLMs to count letters using byteification","summary":"Minixhofer et al. describe a method called byteification that modifies existing token‑based large language models so they can operate on raw bytes instead of word‑level tokens. By exposing the underlying byte sequences, the retrofitted models can read individual characters, allowing them to answer questions such as how many times the letter ‘i’ appears in the phrase “artificial intelligence”.\n\nThe authors evaluate the byteified models on standard benchmarks and report that performance remains competitive with the original token‑based versions, despite the added ability to perform character‑level analysis. This approach shows that token‑only architectures are not fundamentally limited to coarse‑grained text representations and can be extended to finer granularity without sacrificing overall capability.","keyPoints":["Byteification retrofits token‑based LLMs to operate at the byte level.","Byteified models can count individual characters, e.g., the letter ‘i’ in “artificial intelligence”.","Performance stays competitive with standard token‑based LLMs."],"whyItMatters":"Enabling LLMs to access byte‑level information expands their usefulness for tasks that require exact character counting or low‑level text processing, opening new application possibilities.","category":{"slug":"research","name":"Research","url":"https://digestai.news/category/research"},"entities":{"companies":[],"models":[],"people":["B. Minixhofer"]},"firstPublishedAt":"2026-10-07T00:00:00Z","updatedAt":"2026-10-07T00:00:00Z","sourceCount":1,"hasPrimarySource":true,"sources":[{"outlet":"Nature Machine Learning","title":"Retrofitted LLM can count the letter ‘i’s in ‘artificial intelligence’","url":"https://nature.com/articles/d41586-026-03059-2","publishedAt":"2026-10-07T00:00:00Z","type":"primary","primary":true,"lead":true}],"sourceNotes":null,"discussions":[],"thread":null,"cite":{"text":"Digest AI, \"Researchers retrofit LLMs to count letters using byteification\", 7 October 2026, https://digestai.news/story/researchers-retrofit-llms-to-count-letters-using-byteification","publisher":"Digest AI","title":"Researchers retrofit LLMs to count letters using byteification","datePublished":"2026-10-07T00:00:00Z","url":"https://digestai.news/story/researchers-retrofit-llms-to-count-letters-using-byteification"},"generatedBy":"Written by Digest AI's editorial model from the linked sources; the sources are the record.","license":"Headlines, digests and key points are written by Digest AI and may be quoted with a link to the story page. Linked articles belong to their publishers. Terms: https://digestai.news/terms#reuse"}