global

Definition

Spanning the whole input, in contrast to local. Global attention lets every token see every other one at quadratic cost, which is why long-context designs mix a few global layers or tokens with cheaper local windows. The word carries a second sense in optimization — a global optimum as opposed to a local one — so check whether a paper is talking about receptive field or about the loss landscape.

Explainers using this term

• GraphRAG from Scratch — Where Knowledge Graphs Meet RetrievalFrom Local to Global: A Graph RAG Approach to Query-Focused Summarization
• Paper Walkthrough: GST-Bench — Can VLMs Build a Global Map of a Scene from Video?GST-Bench: Can VLMs Develop Global Spatial Awareness from Video?