AI Terms at a Glance
The AI vocabulary you're most likely to encounter.
TALKING WITH AI
Prompt — The instruction or question you give an AI assistant.
Context — Information you provide so the assistant can respond appropriately.
Conversation — An ongoing exchange in which each response provides context for what comes next.
Token — A small piece of text an AI model processes; words are broken into tokens in ways that aren't always obvious.
Hallucination — An AI-generated claim that sounds plausible but is false, unsupported, or invented.
HOW AI WORKS
AI model — The trained system that generates or analyzes information.
AI assistant — An application built around an AI model to help you accomplish tasks.
Inference — The process an AI model uses to generate an answer from its training and the information available to it.
Training — The process used to teach an AI model patterns from large amounts of data.
Fine-tuning — Additional training that adapts a model for particular tasks or types of use.
Parameters — Numerical values learned during training that influence how a model behaves.
Weights — The learned numerical values that make up much of a model's internal representation.
CONNECTING AI TO INFORMATION
RAG — Retrieval-Augmented Generation; a method that lets an AI system retrieve relevant information and use it when generating a response.
Knowledge base — A collection of information an AI system can use to answer questions.
Indexing — Organizing information so that relevant material can be found efficiently.
API — A way for software systems to communicate with one another.
Synchronization — Keeping information consistent between systems or services.
AI THAT CAN DO THINGS
AI agent — An AI system that can pursue a goal through multiple steps, often using tools or taking actions.
Tool — A capability an AI system can use to perform a task outside the model itself.
Action — Something an AI system does through a connected tool or service.
Memory — Information an AI system retains for use in later interactions; the way this works varies by service.
Write access — Permission for an AI system or application to create or change information in another system.
TERMS WORTH KNOWING
Multimodal — Able to work with more than one kind of input or output, such as text, images, audio, or video.
Generative AI — AI that creates new content such as text, images, audio, video, or code.
Synthetic content — Content generated or substantially altered by AI.
Deepfake — Synthetic audio, video, or imagery made to depict a person saying or doing something that did not actually occur.
Want more? See Appendix H — Glossary of AI Terms