Inference
Diffusion Language Model
A language model that writes text by starting from a fully masked sequence and filling in many positions in parallel over several denoising steps, instead of producing one token at a time.
In depth
A language model that writes text by starting from a fully masked sequence and filling in many positions in parallel over several denoising steps, instead of producing one token at a time. LLaDA (2025) trained an 8B diffusion model from scratch with a forward masking process and a Transformer that predicts the masked tokens. It was competitive with LLaMA 3 8B on in-context learning. Commercial models like Inception's Mercury drop the left-to-right order to get much higher throughput.
Primary source: arxiv.org
Example
Commercial models like Inception's Mercury drop the left-to-right order to get much higher throughput.
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FAQ
Common questions
What is Diffusion Language Model?
A language model that writes text by starting from a fully masked sequence and filling in many positions in parallel over several denoising steps, instead of producing one token at a time.
Why does Diffusion Language Model matter for AI developers?
Diffusion Language Model sits in the Inference part of the AI stack. Understanding it helps you make better decisions when building, debugging, and shipping AI features.
Where can I learn more about Diffusion Language Model?
Developers Digest publishes tutorials and videos that cover Inference topics including Diffusion Language Model. Check the blog and YouTube channel for hands-on walkthroughs.
Related
Related terms
Inference
In-Context Learning
The ability of a language model to learn new tasks from examples or instructions provided in the prompt, without any weight updates or training.
Inference
Distillation
A training technique where a smaller "student" model learns to replicate the behavior of a larger "teacher" model.
Inference
Input vs Output Token Pricing
The split pricing model where LLM APIs charge one rate per million tokens you send (input) and a higher rate per million tokens the model generates (output).
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