CLDec 14, 2025

AnimatedLLM: Explaining LLMs with Interactive Visualizations

arXiv:2601.04213v2
Originality Synthesis-oriented
AI Analysis

This tool addresses the problem of limited educational resources for students and learners in natural language processing by offering visual explanations of LLMs, though it is incremental as it builds on existing models and visualization techniques.

The authors tackled the lack of educational materials for understanding LLM mechanics by developing AnimatedLLM, an interactive web application that provides step-by-step visualizations of Transformer models, making it available online for teaching and self-education.

Large language models (LLMs) are becoming central to natural language processing education, yet materials showing their mechanics are sparse. We present AnimatedLLM, an interactive web application that provides step-by-step visualizations of a Transformer language model. AnimatedLLM runs entirely in the browser, using pre-computed traces of open LLMs applied on manually curated inputs. The application is available at https://animatedllm.github.io, both as a teaching aid and for self-educational purposes.

Foundations

The foundational work for this paper's niche, ranked by how specifically the neighbourhood builds on it — not by global fame.

Your Notes