How useful is such a large input window when most of the middle isn't really used? I'm thinking mostly about coding. But wheb putting even say 20k tokens into the input, a good chunk doesn't seem to be "remembered" or used for the output
While you're 100% correct, they are working on ways to make the middle useful, such a "Needle in a Haystack" testing. When we say we wish for context length that large, I think it's implied we mean functionally. But you do make a really great point.