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Equation 11 · Part 8 · OpenAI Model Systems from First Principles: Weights, Post-Training, and Inference Compute

addition

L(N)≈L∞+(NcN)αNL(N) \approx L_\infty + \left(\frac{N_c}{N}\right)^{\alpha_N}
addition

What this part means

Add the term after the plus sign to the term or group before it.

Its job in the formula

Add the term after the plus sign to the term or group before it.

The passage around this formula

with N parameters and D training tokens, the factor of six counting the forward and backward passes. Empirically, test loss falls as a power law in each of parameters, data, and compute over many orders of magnitude, a relationship first characterised systematically by Kaplan and colleagues [ 5 ] . The important structural feature is the functional form: a term of the shape L(N)≈L∞+(NcN)αNL(N) \approx L_\infty + \left(\frac{N_c}{N}\right)^{\alpha_N}. has an irreducible floor L∞L_\infty and diminishing returns above it. Doubling N buys a fixed decrement in loss, not a fixed multiple of capability.

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Learn the underlying idea

Addition combines quantities; subtraction measures the signed difference between them. Parentheses show what is combined before the rest of the expression is evaluated.

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Sources cited in the surrounding passage

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