Artificial Intelligence is a useful and misleading term for the powerful and sometimes convincing text generators swarming the internet. The technical reality is abstruse, to say the least. Osman Recai Ödemis explains large language models as simply as possible—with a brief history of AI in theory and practice.
The Secret Sauce of LLMs: Similarity + Attention
This human conversation mirrors how LLMs work:
Similarity creates connections between related concepts—just as "melody" and "track" naturally point toward music-related completions.
Attention helps filter out noise and focus on what matters most—determining which earlier words are most important for predicting what comes next.
I asked an AI to write Jane Austen's Prediction and Prescience but it caught me with a stony stare and told me to write the damned thing myself.
Previously:
• AI chatbots spawn shock meme cult, birth $258 million crypto empire
• More words that AI loves to use: 'pivotal','interplay', 'comprehensive'
• Popular math YouTuber 3Blue1Brown victimized by malicious and stupid AI bots
• Cartoonist Chris Onstad is using A.I. to revive his 'Achewood' comic strip
• AI might be your next Dungeon Master
