Sparse Attention

Sparse Attention is OpenAI’s code release for the Sparse Transformer model, introduced in the paper Generating Long Sequences with Sparse Transformers. It explores how modifying the self-attention mechanism with sparse patterns can reduce the quadratic scaling of standard transformers, making it possible to model much longer sequences efficiently. The repository provides implementations of sparse attention layers, training code, and evaluation scripts for benchmark datasets. It highlights both fixed and learnable sparsity patterns that trade off computational cost and model expressiveness. By enabling tractable training on longer contexts, the project opened the door to applications in large-scale text and image generation. Though archived, it remains a key reference for efficient transformer research, influencing many later architectures that aim to extend sequence length while reducing compute.