From Typewriter to Editor: Diffusion Language Models
What diffusion models are, the mathematics underneath, and the nine papers behind Inception Labs' Mercury
inceptionlabs.ai/about · Some of the technologies we've developed · 2026-08-01
This is a deep dive into diffusion language models, grounded in the nine papers listed on Inception Labs’ about page. It is built to be worked through, not skimmed: each part ends with a hard five-question quiz, the math parts carry faded derivations to attempt on paper, and the simulations ask you to predict before they run.
Read the parts in order — each one owes its vocabulary to the one before. If you already know how LLMs generate text, start at Part 2; if you only want the story without the equations, Parts 1, 2 and 8 stand on their own.