Simple definition of Mixture of Experts
In AI, Mixture of Experts (MoE) is a smart system design where only parts of a large model are used at a time instead of the whole thing.
“Experts” are small pieces of the model trained to be good at specific tasks. A “gate” decides which experts to use for each input. This saves computing power and speeds things up while still giving great results.
MoE is often used in very large language models. A downside is that it can be harder to train and keep balanced across the experts.
How to explain Mixture of Experts to kids
Tell your child that Mixture of Experts is like having a team of special helpers, and only calling the right ones when you need them. The computer doesn't need to use all its brainpower at once: just the part that's best for the job.
Here’s how to think about it
Imagine a school with many teachers, but each teacher knows only about just one subject. When you ask a question, the school picks only the teacher who knows that subject best to help you. That way, only the teachers with the knowledge to help you work on each question, and the others don't get tired out wasting energy on things they don't understand!