AI Terminology: A Quick Reference Guide

Overview

Learn the meaning of common artificial intelligence (AI) terms you may encounter when using AI tools for education, research, and work. This dictionary provides brief, plain-language definitions to help you better understand AI technology and use it responsibly.

Dictionary

A

Academic Integrity

The principles of honesty and responsibility in academic work, including following course rules for using AI tools.

Agentic AI

An advanced type of artificial intelligence that is designed to take actions on its own, such as booking a hotel reservation or sending emails.

AI Bias

Systematic patterns in AI outputs that may lead to unfair, inaccurate, or unrepresentative results.

AI Detection

Tools that attempt to identify whether content was generated by AI.

AI Disclosure

Communicating when and how AI was used in creating work, when required by an instructor, assignment, or institutional policy.

AI-Generated Content

Text, images, audio, video, code, or other material created by an AI tool.

AI Hallucination

When an AI tool generates information that is false, misleading, or unsupported but presents it as though it were accurate.

AI Literacy

The ability to understand, evaluate, and use AI responsibly and effectively.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Technology that enables computers to perform tasks commonly associated with human intelligence, such as generating content, recognizing patterns, and answering questions.

C

Chatbot

A computer program that interacts with users through text or voice conversations.

Context Window

The amount of information an AI model can consider during a particular interaction.

Copyright

Legal protection for certain original creative works. Using AI to create or modify content does not automatically resolve questions about copyright or ownership.

G

Generative AI

A type of AI that creates new content, such as text, images, audio, video, or computer code.

H

Human Oversight

The involvement of a person in reviewing, evaluating, or supervising AI-generated content or decisions before relying on them.

L

Large Language Model (LLM)

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

P

Prompt

A question, instruction, or set of information provided to an AI tool to guide its response.

T

Token

A unit of text that an AI model processes. Tokens can represent whole words, parts of words, or punctuation. AI tools often use tokens to measure input and output length and may impose token limits on conversations or responses.