Plain-Words AI Glossary

The AI jargon you meet in the news: one plain sentence and one everyday example each. 21 entries, growing with the news every week.

AI Agent AI 代理: AI that doesn't just answer but actually carries out tasks: researching, booking, operating websites, step by step.; e.g.Tell it "compare flight prices across these three sites and make me a table" and it goes off and does it.
AI content label AI 生成內容標示: Labels platforms attach to AI-made images, text, or video so you can tell it wasn't made by a person.; e.g.The small "AI-generated" tag in the corner of some social videos.
AI detector AI 偵測器（AI detector）: A tool that claims it can tell whether text was written by AI. The method behind it has no solid scientific basis and its accuracy is close to a coin flip.; e.g.MIT told people to stop using these tools this month, since running AI text through a second AI can drop several detectors' accuracy down to around fifty percent.
Algorithm 演算法: The step-by-step rules a computer follows. A social feed's "algorithm" is the ruleset deciding which posts you see first.; e.g.Watch a few cat videos and suddenly your feed is all cats: the algorithm guessing what you like.
Artificial General Intelligence AGI（通用人工智慧）: AI that would handle almost any mental task as well as a person or better. Doesn't exist yet, but the industry talks about it daily.; e.g.Headlines arguing "how many years until AGI" are arguing about this.
Artificial Intelligence AI（人工智慧）: Computers doing things that used to need a person: understanding language, recognizing images, writing, making judgment calls.; e.g.When your phone's photo app groups pictures of the same person together, that's AI recognizing faces.
Chatbot 聊天機器人: Any program that interacts with you through conversation, from customer-service popups to ChatGPT.; e.g.The little "Need help?" window in the corner of a shopping site.
ChatGPT ChatGPT: OpenAI's conversational AI, currently the most widely used one. Type a question, get a written answer.; e.g."Translate this email" or "how do I make scrambled eggs" both work as-is.
Context 上下文: What the AI currently "remembers" of your conversation. Beyond that window, it forgets what came earlier.; e.g.When a long chat drifts and the AI forgets your original request, its context ran out.
Deepfake 深偽: Fake video, photos, or audio made with AI, realistic enough to fool the eye.; e.g.Scammers ran fake videos of a celebrity endorsing an investment course. Face and voice both synthetic.
Free / Paid tier 免費版／付費版: Most mainstream AI services have a free tier that covers everyday use; paying gets you smarter answers and higher limits.; e.g.Start free. If you find yourself using it daily, then consider upgrading.
Generative AI 生成式 AI: AI that creates new things: articles, images, music, video, instead of just sorting or searching.; e.g.Type "write me a polite sick-day message" and it produces a brand-new paragraph. That's generative.
Hallucination 幻覺: When AI confidently states something wrong or made up. It isn't lying; it can't tell true from false.; e.g.Ask about a book and it fluently describes a chapter that doesn't exist.
LLM, Large Language Model 大型語言模型: The engine behind AI like ChatGPT: a program that read enormous amounts of text and learned how to continue a conversation and answer questions.; e.g.When the news says a company "released a new model," this engine is what got upgraded.
Multimodal 多模態: AI that understands more than text: images and audio too.; e.g.Snap a photo of your fridge and ask "what can I cook tonight?" It answers from the picture.
Open-source model 開源模型: An AI engine released publicly for anyone to download, use, and modify, as opposed to one you can only reach through a company's service.; e.g.Some companies give their models away; engineers can run them on their own machines, fully offline.
Prompt 提示詞: Whatever you type to the AI. The clearer you are, the better the answer.; e.g."Write a letter" vs "write a firm but polite payment reminder under 100 words": very different results.
Recommender system 推薦系統: AI that guesses what you'll want to watch or buy next, based on what you did before.; e.g."Recommended for you" on a streaming site; "you may also like" in a shop.
Token token: The unit AI uses to measure text, roughly fragments of words. Usage and pricing are usually counted in it.; e.g."$X per million tokens" in the news means the price of processing that much text.
Training 訓練: The process of feeding huge amounts of data to an AI so it learns patterns, like cramming an entire library before an exam.; e.g.AI writes decent English because it read a staggering amount of English during training.
Voice Cloning 語音複製: AI that imitates someone's voice after hearing just a short sample.; e.g.A call from a "family member" asking for money, with a perfect voice, has already happened. It was synthesized.