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Transformer

The neural network architecture behind virtually all modern AI language models.

Definition

The neural network architecture behind virtually all modern AI language models. Introduced in the 2017 paper 'Attention Is All You Need,' it replaced recurrent networks by processing entire sequences in parallel using attention mechanisms. Powers GPT, Claude, Gemini, LLaMA, and almost every LLM you've heard of.

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Related Terms

Attention

A mechanism that lets neural networks focus on the most relevant parts of their input when producing output.

Self-Attention

An attention mechanism where a sequence attends to itself — each element looks at all other elements to understand relationships.

Language Model

An AI model that understands and generates human language.

Activation Function

A mathematical function applied to a neuron's output that introduces non-linearity into the network.

Adam Optimizer

An optimization algorithm that combines the best parts of two other methods — AdaGrad and RMSProp.

AGI

Artificial General Intelligence.

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