Glossary (plain-English definitions)

This glossary explains common AI terms in normal language.

AI (Artificial Intelligence)

A broad term for computer systems that can perform tasks that usually require human intelligence, like recognising patterns or generating text.

A program you can talk to using messages. ChatGPT and Gemini are chatbot-style tools.

An AI model trained on very large amounts of text to generate and understand language.

A particular version of the AI system. Different models may be faster, more accurate, or better at certain tasks.

What you type or say to the AI.

The information the AI is using right now - your recent messages, its replies, and sometimes uploaded files or settings.

A limit on how much text the AI can keep in mind at once. Larger context windows can handle longer documents and longer conversations.

When an AI generates a confident-sounding answer that is wrong, invented, or not supported by evidence.

A way of counting text for AI systems. Roughly: words are made of tokens. More tokens means more text in the conversation.

Speaking to the AI instead of typing.

A feature that can browse many websites and create a structured report (availability depends on the tool and plan).

A feature where the AI can remember certain details across chats (if enabled). You can usually manage or turn this off.

A mode designed for one-off conversations that do not use or update saved memory (availability depends on the tool).

Removing private information (names, numbers, addresses) before sharing text or images.