Applied AI

Course map · S1 How LLMs work · Episode 4 of 12

Attention

S1 E4 Explainer · 13 slides · 1 October 2026

  1. Slide 1 of 13, Cover.
  2. Slide 2 of 13, Why it matters.
  3. Slide 3 of 13, Mental model.
  4. Slide 4 of 13, Concepts.
  5. Slide 5 of 13, Concepts.
  6. Slide 6 of 13, Concepts.
  7. Slide 7 of 13, Concepts.
  8. Slide 8 of 13, Where it breaks.
  9. Slide 9 of 13, For engineers.
  10. Slide 10 of 13, In practice.
  11. Slide 11 of 13, For leaders.
  12. Slide 12 of 13, Decision rule.
  13. Slide 13 of 13, Series map.

Lesson notes

Attention lets every token weigh the tokens before it, so meaning comes from context, but every extra token competes for that attention and adds cost.

Decision rule

Send the model what it needs, not everything you have: every extra token competes for attention and adds cost.

Ideas in this lesson

  • Vectors
  • Attention

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