---
title: "What's a Transformer at DevFestMN (2023)"
source: "/speaks/whats-a-transformer-devfestmn-december-2023/"
---

Speech

# What's a Transformer

Collin Flynn

December 2, 2023

## About the talk

In 2017 a paper came out of a research group at Google, titled "Attention is all you need", which proposed what they called a "Transformer" architecture

for machine learning. It changed the industry.

## Presented by

Collin Flynn

Principal Software Engineer

Collin Flynn

## About Livefront

Livefront builds intelligent products, platforms, and agents for the world's most admired companies. Partner with us to move faster, think bigger, and drive material business outcomes with AI.

### Tags

[Digital Engineering](/insights/all/?topic=digital-engineering)

### Share

-   Copied

## View these next.

[See all](/insights/all/?type=speaking)

-   [

    Speech

    Humans in the Loop: Hiring Software Engineers in the AI Era

    Pete Jones & Nick Krantz

    ](/speaks/humans-in-the-loop-hiring-open-source-north-may-2026/)
-   [

    Speech

    Preppers & Comrades Unite: Building a Decentralized Mesh Network for Resilient Communication

    Chris Wodicka

    ](/speaks/preppers-comrades-unite-building-minnebar-may-2026/)
-   [

    Speech

    Let's Animate! An Introduction to RIVE.APP

    Shalanah Dawson

    ](/speaks/lets-animate-an-introduction-to-minnebar-may-2026/)