What Happens After Enter – free cheat sheet (episode 28)

Why it matters

A chat can feel like one step: you type, an answer appears. Picture your question as a letter. In many chat apps it makes three stops first. Not every app works exactly the same way.

The three stops

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A hidden note is addedChat apps often add instructions of their own before your question reaches the AI. The technical name is a system prompt. It isn't shown in your chat.Try: Your question + the app's note go in together.
Words are cut into piecesThe AI works with small pieces called tokens. A token can be a whole word, part of a word, or even one character.Try: A name like Whiskers might become a few pieces.
It guesses one piece at a timeThe AI guesses the next piece, adds it, and guesses again. Each guess looks at everything written so far.Try: Guess a piece. Add it. Guess again.
The answer is sent back in piecesChat apps can show each piece as soon as it is ready. That is why the answer can look like someone typing.

Tap a step when you have done it. Your ticks stay on this device.

Rule of thumb

your question gets a hidden note, gets cut into pieces, and is answered one guess at a time.

Sources: public glossaries and docs from AI makers (tokens, pretraining, streaming of responses, published system prompts, developer instructions); a free online machine-learning course on language models. The mailbox and robot scenes are our own illustration.

Episode 28: What happens after you press Enter

Why it matters

The three stops

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