Understanding How AI Models Work: A Guide for All Readers

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is widely used today, from chatbots to automated assistants. But how does AI work behind the scenes? This post will explain AI in a way that both technical and non-technical readers can understand, covering how AI processes requests and generates responses.

What Are AI Model Parameters?

AI models rely on parameters, which are like settings that help the AI understand and generate responses. These include:

Weights and Biases (Technical) – Mathematical values that determine the strength of connections between neurons in a neural network.
Patterns & Rules (Non-Technical) – The AI learns relationships between words and concepts.
Attention Weights (Both) – The AI decides which words or parts of input matter most in context.
Filters/Kernels (Technical) – Used in image recognition and text processing to extract key details.

Mathematically, a neural network processes an input X using weights W and biases b:

Y = W \cdot X + b

where Y is the output.

AI Model Sizes: How Big Are They?

AI models come in different sizes based on the number of parameters they use. Here’s a simple comparison:

Model Type	Size	Used For
Small AI Models	< 1B parameters	Simple tasks like spell checkers
Medium AI Models	7B parameters	Chatbots and coding assistants
Large AI Models	175B+ parameters	Advanced AI like ChatGPT and Google’s Bard

Larger models typically perform better but require more computing power and data.

How AI Understands and Processes a Request

Let’s say you ask an AI: "Write a Python factorial program"

Here’s what happens inside the AI model:

Step-by-Step AI Workflow

Tokenization (Technical): The input text is broken down into smaller pieces (tokens).
Breaking Down the Request (Non-Technical): AI separates words for easier understanding.
Mapping to Numerical IDs (Technical): Each token is converted into a number from the AI’s vocabulary.
Understanding Meaning (Both): AI uses past examples to interpret the request.
Finding Patterns (Both): The AI looks at billions of examples it has seen before.
Generating a Response (Technical): AI predicts the next token (word) step by step.
Final Output (Non-Technical): The AI produces a human-readable response.

Mathematically, the AI predicts the next word y_t given previous words using a probability function:

P(y_t | y_1, y_2, ..., y_{t-1}) = \text{softmax}(W h_t + b)

where h_t is the hidden state at time t.

Mermaid.js Workflow Diagram

This diagram illustrates the AI workflow in both simple and technical terms:

graph TD;
    A["User Input: write a python factorial program"] --> B["Tokenization & Breaking Down Words"]
    B --> C["Mapping to Numerical IDs"]
    C --> D["Understanding Meaning & Finding Patterns"]
    D --> E["Generating Response Step-by-Step"]
    E --> F["Final Output"]

Example Response: Python Factorial Program

If you ask AI to generate a factorial program, it might reply with:

def factorial(n):
    if n == 0 or n == 1:
        return 1
    return n * factorial(n - 1)

print(factorial(5))

This follows the mathematical formula for factorial:

n! = n \times (n-1)! \text{ for } n > 0, \quad 0! = 1

Conclusion

AI models work by recognizing patterns, processing input step by step, and generating responses. Whether you're a beginner or an expert, understanding these fundamentals can help you appreciate how AI is shaping our world.

Would you like to explore more AI concepts? Let us know in the comments! 🚀