Quick definition
Self-attention lets a model weigh relationships between tokens in a sequence.
- Category: Models
- Focus: model capability and fit
- Used in: Choosing a model that fits latency and cost constraints.
What it means
Each token attends to others to build contextual representations. In models workflows, self-attention often shapes model capability and fit.
How it works
Model architecture and scale determine capability. Context length, parameter count, and modality support vary across models.
Why it matters
Model architecture affects capability, context length, and speed.
Common use cases
- Choosing a model that fits latency and cost constraints.
- Selecting longer context for document-heavy workflows.
- Using specialized models for code, vision, or speech.
Example
Pronouns attend to the nouns they refer to.
Pitfalls and tips
Bigger is not always better. Match the model to the task and evaluate in production.
In BoltAI
In BoltAI, this shows up in model selection and configuration.
