The Lab · Learn

How AI actually works

Small pages that run on this device. Read the plain version, move the sliders, watch what changes, then say what you saw. Tap any word you do not know.

Lesson 1

The context window

AI can only see a set amount of text at once. In a long chat, the oldest parts quietly fall out of view.

It is like: Like a whiteboard that only fits so much. To write something new, something old gets wiped.
Why it matters at work: If an AI forgets what you said at the start, this is why. Restate the important things, or start a fresh chat with a summary.

The exact idea

A model can only read a fixed number of tokens at once, so a long chat has to be cut to fit.

Words on this page

Try this

Lower the limit until the message about the nut allergy is cut. Then read the last question again.
Raise the tokens held for the reply and watch more of the chat get cut.
Find the smallest limit that still keeps the allergy message.

Change it

Ask for a toggle that keeps the first customer message pinned too, and see what gets cut instead.

When the chat no longer fits, what does this page cut first, and what does that cost?

Pick the one that fits what you saw.

The newest messages, so the model loses the latest question.The oldest messages, so anything said early, like the nut allergy, is gone and the model cannot use it.Every message gets shortened a little, so nothing is fully lost.The oldest messages, but the model still remembers them from earlier in the chat.

Field notes

Reading the notes.