# LLMs Unplugged

## Pages

- [About](https://www.llmsunplugged.org/about/): The history and foundations of LLMs Unplugged, from CS Unplugged to Shannon's information theory.
- [Workshop blurbs](https://www.llmsunplugged.org/blurbs/): Standard descriptions of the LLMs Unplugged workshop at various lengths, for hosts, event organisers, and conference programs.
- [FAQ](https://www.llmsunplugged.org/faq/): Frequently asked questions about using LLMs Unplugged resources, materials needed, and how the activities relate to modern AI.
- [Agentic AI](https://www.llmsunplugged.org/lessons/agentic-ai/): Turn your model into an agent by teaching it to call external tools when it needs information it doesn't have.
- [Generation](https://www.llmsunplugged.org/lessons/generation/): Use your hand-built bigram model to generate new text through weighted random sampling.
- [In-context Memory](https://www.llmsunplugged.org/lessons/in-context-memory/): Add a short-term memory that nudges generation toward recently-used words, keeping text on topic---a hands-on model of attention and in-context learning.
- [Induction Heads](https://www.llmsunplugged.org/lessons/induction-heads/): Add a rule that completes patterns from the text itself---find the last time the current word appeared and copy what followed it---the circuit behind in-context learning.
- [LoRA](https://www.llmsunplugged.org/lessons/lora/): Add a lightweight adaptation layer to retarget a trained model without retraining everything.
- [More Context](https://www.llmsunplugged.org/lessons/more-context/): Extend the bigram model to two words of context with a trigram, see why that gets expensive, then add cheap extra context with a skip grid.
- [Pre-trained Model Generation](https://www.llmsunplugged.org/lessons/pretrained-generation/): Use a provided pre-trained booklet to generate text without training your own model.
- [RLHF](https://www.llmsunplugged.org/lessons/rlhf/): Use human preferences to adjust your model's weights, making it generate text people prefer.
- [Sampling](https://www.llmsunplugged.org/lessons/sampling/): Same model, different output---experiment with temperature and truncation strategies to shape how your model picks the next word.
- [Sycophancy](https://www.llmsunplugged.org/lessons/sycophancy/): Skew your model toward over-agreeable, flattering responses by piling in sycophantic training data.
- [Synthetic Data](https://www.llmsunplugged.org/lessons/synthetic-data/): Generate synthetic text with your model, retrain on it, and see how patterns drift or collapse.
- [Training](https://www.llmsunplugged.org/lessons/training/): Build a bigram language model that tracks which words follow which other words in text.
- [Weighted Randomness](https://www.llmsunplugged.org/lessons/weighted-randomness/): Learn how to make random choices where some options are more likely than others---a core generative AI operation.
- [Word Embeddings](https://www.llmsunplugged.org/lessons/word-embeddings/): Turn each word's row into a vector and measure similarities between words in your model.
- [Website launch](https://www.llmsunplugged.org/news/2025-11-20-website-launch/): The LLMs Unplugged website is now live.
- [ACT Academy of Future Skills workshop](https://www.llmsunplugged.org/news/2025-12-10-act-aofs-workshop/): Working through LLMs Unplugged with ACT specialty STEM teachers
- [LLMs Unplugged: the pitch to teachers](https://www.llmsunplugged.org/news/2025-12-12-why-use-an-unplugged-approach-in-your-classroom/): How do we build the confidence to have discussions about LLMs and AI in our classrooms?
- [LLMs Unplugged at Brimbank Tech School](https://www.llmsunplugged.org/news/2026-02-13-brimbank-tech-school-workshop/): A hands-on AI workshop for educators at VU Sunshine Campus with Brimbank Tech School
- [Designing the LLMs Unplugged brand mark](https://www.llmsunplugged.org/news/2026-03-13-designing-the-brand-mark/): The new brand mark encodes GPT-3 token IDs into visual dot patterns --- here's how it works.
- [LLMs Unplugged at ICTENSW DigiTLL](https://www.llmsunplugged.org/news/2026-03-15-ictensw-digitll-conference/): Presenting "LLMs Unplugged" at the ICTENSW DigiTLL Conference in North Sydney on 15 March
- [Mapping LLMs Unplugged to the Australian Curriculum](https://www.llmsunplugged.org/news/2026-03-18-curriculum-mapping-example/): An example of how LLMs Unplugged activities align with the Australian Curriculum for Year 5/6.
- [LLMs Unplugged for ACT teachers](https://www.llmsunplugged.org/news/2026-03-18-llms-unplugged-for-teachers/): A hands-on workshop for ACT educators at the Hedley Beare Centre on 18 March
- [The AI schools framework is right about the goal — but there's a simpler path](https://www.llmsunplugged.org/news/2026-03-20-ai-framework-without-the-burden/): The Australian Framework for Generative AI in Schools asks teachers to do extraordinary things. There's a simpler way to build genuine AI literacy.
- [Open-enrolment workshops in May and June](https://www.llmsunplugged.org/news/2026-03-24-open-enrolment-workshops/): Two upcoming hands-on LLMs Unplugged workshops at ANU, open to everyone
- [Luritja resampled](https://www.llmsunplugged.org/news/2026-04-07-tjabal-centre-autumn-school/): Running LLMs Unplugged at the Tjabal Centre Autumn School with Luritja poet Matt Heffernan, using his poem Ngurrparringu as the training text
- [LLMs Unplugged is TQI-accredited](https://www.llmsunplugged.org/news/2026-04-24-tqi-accreditation/): The ACT Teacher Quality Institute has accredited LLMs Unplugged as a two-hour professional learning program
- [Cutouts get a glow-up](https://www.llmsunplugged.org/news/2026-05-07-cutouts-glow-up/): A revamped cutouts variant of the Training and Generation lessons, with crisper print materials and a generation mechanic that does weighted sampling for free.
- [Generating the cutout palette](https://www.llmsunplugged.org/news/2026-05-24-generating-the-cutout-palette/): The cutout palette is now algorithmically generated, with 30 perceptually distinct colours instead of 14 hand-picked ones.
- [How AI writes stories at Duffy Primary](https://www.llmsunplugged.org/news/2026-06-02-how-ai-writes-stories-at-duffy/): Taking LLMs Unplugged into a Year 5 classroom at Duffy Primary School, with the ACT Academy of Future Skills
- [LLMs Unplugged for political scientists](https://www.llmsunplugged.org/news/2026-06-16-apsa-quantitative-methods-workshop/): Running the opening session at the 3rd APSA Workshop on Quantitative Methods at ANU, for a room of political and social science researchers
- [Yoda, ELIZA, and a Year 7 bigram model](https://www.llmsunplugged.org/news/2026-06-23-yoda-and-eliza-in-the-classroom/): A pre-service teacher took LLMs Unplugged into a lower-SES Year 7/8 classroom, swapped the children's book for a Yoda monologue, and added a 1966 chatbot for contrast
- [LLMs Unplugged at the ACDICT L&T Forum](https://www.llmsunplugged.org/news/2026-07-02-acdict-lt-forum/): Slides and worksheets for my ACDICT Learning & Teaching Forum session, plus a self-guided path for anyone joining online.
- [LLMs Unplugged now speaks Mandarin Chinese](https://www.llmsunplugged.org/news/2026-07-03-chinese-language-support/): The interactive widgets and the booklet generator now segment Mandarin Chinese into words, not just characters. Thanks to Zhang Xilian for the nudge.