What is a model architecture?

Definition

An artificial intelligence model architecture specifies how computation is organized. It defines elements such as layers, attention mechanisms, expert modules, state representations and the paths through which inputs are transformed into outputs.

Architecture affects capability, efficiency and hardware behavior, but novelty is not the only route to improvement. Better data, objectives and training curricula can make an established architecture substantially more capable without changing its basic structural design.

Acronyms and aliases

AI model architecture synonymmodel architecture synonymartificial intelligence model architecture variant

Frequently asked questions

How is model architecture different from model parameters?

Architecture defines the arrangement and operations of the model, while parameters are the learned numerical values used within that structure.

Does a better AI model always need a new architecture?

No. Improvements in data quality, training schedules, optimization and post-training can raise performance even when the underlying architecture remains familiar.

Videos explaining model architecture