The Gashlycrumb Tinies of AI Networking You Must Know (or Languish!)

As the worlds of AI workloads and SRE practices converge, more and more teams are expected to ramp up on a whole new vocabulary. Terms like “NCCL”, “PXN”, “MoE” and “queue pairs” are thrown around, yet these concepts can remain elusive, buried in dense academic papers or scattered vendor documentation.

Inspired by Edward Gorey’s whimsical illustrated alphabets, this talk provides a structured, approachable tour through essential AI networking concepts. We’ll demystify the specialized terminology and building blocks of AI networking, explaining each concept in clear language with practical context and a touch of darkly playful illustration to help the concepts stick.