AI glossary / The basics
Turing test
A classic test of whether a machine can pass as human in conversation. Once a milestone, now seen as a weak measure of intelligence.
More words in The basics
- 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.
- AlgorithmA set of step-by-step instructions a computer follows to get something done.
- Artificial intelligenceComputer systems that do things we'd normally say need human thinking: understanding language, spotting patterns, making decisions.