AI glossary / The basics
Recommendation system
AI that suggests what you might like next, such as films on Netflix or products on Amazon. Probably the AI you use most without noticing.
More words in The basics
- SuperintelligenceA hypothetical AI far smarter than humans at nearly everything. It doesn't exist.
- Turing testA classic test of whether a machine can pass as human in conversation. Once a milestone, now seen as a weak measure of intelligence.
- AGIArtificial general intelligence. A still-hypothetical AI that could do any thinking task as well as a person. People disagree on how close it is, or what would count.
- AI assistantA chatbot built to help with everyday tasks: answering questions, writing, planning, summarising. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Copilot are all AI assistants.
- AI literacyKnowing enough about AI to use it well and question it sensibly. It's what this site is for.