Zone 01 · Q3
How does a word become a number become a meaning?
A transformation, shown in steps.
Pick a word. Watch what happens.
Step 1. The word
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Step 2. A number (the token id)
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The model keeps a dictionary. Every word gets an id. That is all the model sees.
Step 3. A vector (the embedding)
A list of 32 numbers. Each number is one coordinate in a meaning-space. Similar words land close together.
Step 4. Meaning. Words nearest this one.
"Meaning" inside the model is not a definition. It is a neighborhood.
Words do not have meaning inside an AI. Positions do. A word is just a coordinate. Two words with similar meanings end up as neighbors in a very high-dimensional space.
This is why an AI can answer a question it has never seen. It finds the neighborhood the question lives in.