A plain-English guide to basic AI terms
Tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini are built on LLMs. An LLM learns patterns from very large amounts of text and uses those patterns to predict and write language. A token is a small piece of text that the AI reads or writes; it can be a word, part of a word, or punctuation.
The is the amount of information the AI can look at at one time, so a larger one helps with longer chats and documents. A prompt is the question or instruction given to the AI. A is an answer that sounds confident but is wrong or made up.
is the act of using an already trained model to produce an answer, while training is the earlier work of building the model. An API lets connect an AI model to another app or product. RAG makes the documents or a database before answering, and an turns text meaning into numbers so computers can compare related ideas.
Key points
- LLM is the core technology behind tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini.
- A token is a small text unit that an AI model reads or writes.
- A larger helps the AI handle longer chats or documents.
- A is a confident-sounding answer that is false or made up.
- API and RAG matter when connecting AI to apps, products, or private documents.