AI glossary / How it works
Self-supervised learning
Learning from raw data without human labels, for example by hiding a word in a sentence and trying to guess it. This is how language models learn.
More words in How it works
- SubagentA helper agent that a main agent hands part of a job to. It works on its piece and reports back.
- Supervised learningTraining with examples that come with the right answers attached, such as photos already labelled cat or dog.
- Synthetic dataArtificially generated data used for training when real data is scarce, expensive or private.
- Test-time computeLetting a model think for longer on a hard question to get a better answer, at the cost of speed and money.
- TokenThe small chunks of text an AI reads and writes in, roughly three-quarters of a word each. Limits and prices are usually counted in tokens.