Transformers

Large language models (LLMs) are transformative AI systems trained on massive text datasets to understand, generate, and predict human-like language. They power tools like chatbots, translators, and code generators by leveraging transformer architectures, self-supervised learning, and intricate mechanisms like attention.[1][2][4] This comprehensive guide breaks down LLMs from fundamentals to advanced operations, drawing on established research and explanations. Whether you’re a developer, researcher, or curious learner, you’ll gain a detailed understanding of their inner workings. ...

In 2017, a team at Google published a paper that would fundamentally reshape the landscape of machine learning. “Attention Is All You Need” by Vaswani et al. introduced the Transformer architecture—a bold departure from the recurrent and convolutional approaches that had dominated sequence modeling for years. The paper’s central thesis was radical: you don’t need recurrence or convolution at all. Just attention mechanisms and feed-forward networks are sufficient to achieve state-of-the-art results in sequence-to-sequence tasks. ...