AI glossary / How it works

Inference

How it works

The moment an AI model is actually used: you ask, it works out an answer. Training is learning, inference is doing.

More words in How it works

• Instruction tuningExtra training that teaches a model to follow requests, turning a text predictor into a helpful assistant.
• Knowledge graphA map of facts showing how things are connected, such as people, places and companies and the relationships between them.
• LoRALow-rank adaptation. A cheap way to customise a big model by training a small add-on instead of changing the whole thing.
• Mixture of expertsA model design with many specialist parts, where only the relevant few switch on for each question. It saves computing power.
• Model collapseWhat can happen when AI is trained on too much AI-made content: quality and variety gradually decline.