Definition

Matrix Multiplication

A neuron computes a weighted sum of its inputs, which is a dot product. A layer with thousands of neurons sharing the same inputs is thousands of dot products, which is by definition a matrix multiplication. Attention, feed-forward layers, embeddings, and gradients are all implemented this way. That is why GPUs, built to multiply large matrices in parallel, became the hardware of AI.

Matrix Multiplication diagram from Intelligence at Scale
Diagram from chapter 5, Inside the Machine

Explained in

Chapter 5: Inside the Machine

Everything you need to know about what's happening inside the box. No PhD required.

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