Basics

AI (artificial intelligence)

Computer systems that do tasks we would normally say need human intelligence, such as understanding language, recognising images or making predictions. The term dates from a 1955 proposal for a research workshop at Dartmouth College. Today it covers everything from spam filters to chatbots, so ask which kind of AI someone means.


Related terms

AGI (artificial general intelligence)

A hypothetical AI that could match or exceed people across most intellectual tasks. There is no agreed definition or t…

AI assistant

A general-purpose chat tool built on a large language model that can write, answer questions, analyse files and, incre…

Algorithm

A set of step-by-step instructions for solving a problem. In machine learning, the training algorithm is the recipe fo…

Chatbot

A program you talk to in a conversation. Older chatbots followed scripted decision trees; modern ones use large langua…

Computer vision

The field of AI that interprets images and video: reading text in photos, spotting defects on a production line, count…

Context window

The maximum amount of text, measured in tokens, a model can take into account at once, including your prompt, any file…

Beyond the definition

Knowing the word is the easy part

A short assessment scores you across five skill areas and builds a path through 18 modules, skipping whatever you already know. Free, no card.

Find your level