Can someone explain what “predicting the next token” means

Reddit r/artificial / 3/31/2026

💬 OpinionIdeas & Deep Analysis

Key Points

  • The post asks for an explanation of what “predicting the next token” means in chatbots’ responses and task execution.
  • It frames the question around what computation or mechanism occurs after a user prompt to produce an answer.
  • The core concept being sought is how language models generate text by choosing the most likely next discrete unit (token) repeatedly.
  • The discussion is centered on intuition for model behavior rather than reporting a new product, release, or event.

Say I ask a chatbot a question or ask the chatbot to perform a task. What does predicting a token mean in this activity? What is happening to make the chatbot come up with an answer or perform a task?

Thanks.

submitted by /u/SeverusBaker
[link] [comments]