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THE VIDEO SHELF · transformer language models

Transformers, the tech behind LLMs | Deep Learning Chapter 5

3Blue1Brown's visual explanation of how transformers and GPT-style language models work, tracing data through tokens, embeddings and attention.

Why HN readers recommended it

HN treats it as the go-to visual introduction to transformers, and many say it finally made attention and embeddings click.

This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.

Video & recommendation details

Creator / channel
3Blue1Brown
Topic
transformer language models
Format
explainer
Level
intro
HN recommenders in dataset
13
HN mentions in dataset
16
Recommendation years in dataset
2024–2026

These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.

From the original HN conversations

Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.

  • 3Blue1Brown is really a godsend. I had been trying and failed to get an intuition for the self-attention mechanisms, and also why you want to stack you transformer layers. I went through a lot of material (Key-Query-Value interpretations, SVD of these, etc.) but his comment …

    BenoitP on Hacker News · 2024-04
    In Visualizing Attention, a Transformer's Heart [video]
  • 3Blue1Brown has a fantastic video on GPT that I'd highly recommend called "But what is a GPT? Visual intro to transformers" [1]. You'll need to have some background in mathematical reasoning, but not too much. He does a great job of drawing pictures to show …

    Wilduck on Hacker News · 2024-05
    In Ask HN: Why can't ChatGPT solve Wordle-type questions?
  • This is good, but what bade me finally understand the transformer architecture [0] and attention [1], are 3Blue1Brown's videos. 0. [VIDEO] 1. [LINK]

    tomashm on Hacker News · 2024-07
    In The Illustrated Transformer (2018)

Summaries, classifications and recommendation records are from the HackerTube source dataset. Read about this library and its limitations.