Multiclass Text Classification Using LLM (MTC-LLM): A Comprehensive Guide

Multiclass text classification (MTC) is a natural language processing (NLP) task where text is categorized into multiple predefined categories or classes. Traditional approaches rely on training machine learning models, requiring labeled data and iterative fine-tuning. However, with the advent of large language models (LLMs), this task can now be approached differently. Instead of building and training a custom model, we can utilize pre-trained LLMs to classify text using carefully designed prompts, allowing rapid deployment with minimal data requirements and enabling flexibility to adjust classes without retraining. 

Approaches for MTC-LLM 

In MTC-LLM, we generally have two main approaches for utilizing LLMs to achieve classification. 

Single Classifier with a Multi-Class Prompt 

Using a single LLM prompt for multi-class text classification involves providing a single, comprehensive prompt that instructs the model on all possible classes, expecting it to classify the text into one of these categories. This approach is simple and straightforward, as ...