Definition of "transformer"

transformer

/tɹænsˈfɔɹmɚ/

noun
plural transformers
1. Something that transforms, changing its own or another thing's shape.
2. (electrical engineering) A static device that transfers electric energy from one circuit to another by magnetic coupling. Their main use is to transfer energy between different voltage levels, which allows choosing most appropriate voltage for power generation, transmission and distribution separately.
3. (machine learning) A neural network architecture that relies on self-attention mechanisms.
  Quotations
  Transformer is a deep machine learning model based on the encoder–decoder network architecture and is used primarily in the field of NLP.
  2021, Lei Chen, Deep Learning and Practice with MindSpore, Springer Nature, page 116
  The transformer helped machine-learning systems improve at a much faster pace, leading directly to last year’s release of ChatGPT and the attendant boom in interest around AI. (Transformers are the “T” in ChatGPT.)
  2023 January 31, Casey Newton, “Instagram’s co-founders are back with Artifact, a kind of TikTok for text”, in The Verge‎
4. Alternative letter-case form of Transformer