What is a chatbot actually doing?

Answers: “How does ChatGPT work?”

▶YouTube embed // Video ID: [VIDEO_ID] // 16:9

§ 01

In plain English

A chatbot is a program that predicts text. When you send a message, it reads it as small pieces called tokens. It then works out which piece is likely to come next, adds it, and repeats, one piece at a time, until the reply is finished. This episode follows a single reply from start to end.

§ 02 // Bureau of Accuracy // Form 200-C

Claims and sources

04 claims // Placeholder sources

Claims made in this episode, with sources and check status
No.	Claim	Source	Status	Model and date
01	A chatbot builds its reply one token at a time.	[Source placeholder]	✓ Sourced	—
02	A token is often a whole word, or part of one.	[Source placeholder]	✓ Sourced	—
03	At each step, the model scores many possible next tokens and picks one.	[Source placeholder]	✓ Sourced	—
04	Asked the same question twice, the same chatbot can give different replies.	[Test log placeholder]	✓ Checked [DD MMM YYYY]	[Model name, version] · [DD MMM YYYY]

Claim 01
A chatbot builds its reply one token at a time.
Source
[Source placeholder]
Status
✓ Sourced
Model
—
Claim 02
A token is often a whole word, or part of one.
Source
[Source placeholder]
Status
✓ Sourced
Model
—
Claim 03
At each step, the model scores many possible next tokens and picks one.
Source
[Source placeholder]
Status
✓ Sourced
Model
—
Claim 04
Asked the same question twice, the same chatbot can give different replies.
Source
[Test log placeholder]
Status
✓ Checked [DD MMM YYYY]
Model
[Model name, version] · [DD MMM YYYY]

§ 03 // Office of Public Record

Corrections

No corrections yet.

§ 04 // Short-form annex

Shorts from this episode

Short 01 // 9:16

Short 02 // 9:16

→

Next in LLM 101

EP 02

You now know a chatbot writes one piece at a time. Next: what those pieces are.

How AI reads: tokens

“Why does AI get spelling and counting wrong?”