LEARN AI · CHAPTER 2 OF 9 · 5 MIN
HOW IT WORKS
Learning, tokens, why answers change, and why long chats get heavy.
BY THE END YOU CAN
- Explain training, tokens and why answers vary
- Explain why long chats get slow and use more of your allowance
- Know when it needs web search or your documents for recent facts
5 short lessons · about 5 minutes · 4-question quiz.
IN THIS CHAPTER
- It learned by reading
- It reads in tokens
- One piece at a time
- Each reply starts from the whole chat
- The desk: how much it can look at
Plus a 4-question quiz with every answer explained.
PART OF THE FULL COURSE · $2.99
This chapter is in the full Learn AI course: all 9 chapters, every quiz and the certificate, for a one-time payment of $2.99. No subscription; all sales are final, no refunds. Chapter 1 is free.
GO DEEPER: FURTHER READING
Hand-picked guides, articles and videos on this chapter's topics. Links checked 2026-11-06.
- VIDEOLarge Language Models explained briefly (3Blue1Brown)
A short animated video on how chat tools like Claude predict the next word.
- REFERENCEContext windows (Anthropic)
Anthropic on the "desk": why more text is not always better. Uses some technical words.
- REFERENCEGlossary (Anthropic)
Anthropic's definitions of tokens, context window and more. More technical than our glossary.
- ARTICLETransformers, the tech behind chatbots (3Blue1Brown)
For the curious: a visual deep dive into how these models work inside. Uses some maths.