Sam Rose Explains LLMs with Visual Essay
Published:Dec 19, 2025 18:33
•1 min read
•Simon Willison
Analysis
This article highlights Sam Rose's visual essay explaining how Large Language Models (LLMs) work. It emphasizes the essay's clarity and accessibility in introducing complex topics like tokenization, embeddings, and the transformer architecture. The author, Simon Willison, praises Rose's ability to create explorable interactive explanations and notes this particular essay, initially focused on prompt caching, expands into a comprehensive overview of LLM internals. The inclusion of a visual aid further enhances understanding, making it a valuable resource for anyone seeking a clear introduction to the subject.
Key Takeaways
- •Sam Rose's visual essay provides a clear explanation of LLMs.
- •The essay covers tokenization, embeddings, and transformer architecture.
- •The visual aids enhance understanding of complex concepts.
Reference
“The result is one of the clearest and most accessible introductions to LLM internals I've seen anywhere.”