A
- Agent
- An AI that can take actions, like searching the web, filling in a form or using other apps, not just write text.
- AI assistant
- An AI helper that answers questions and does tasks for you, like drafting emails, planning a trip or explaining a bill. You can shape how it acts with custom instructions. Set up an AI assistantSee also: Chatbot, Custom instructions, Agent
- AI detector
- A tool that guesses whether text or a picture was made by AI. It can be wrong in both directions, so a result alone is not proof. See also: Watermark, Deepfake
- AI model
- The program that writes the answers. ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini are apps, and each one runs on its own models.
- AI receptionist
- An AI that answers a business's phone or chat, greets people, answers common questions and books appointments, day or night. A good one passes tricky calls to a real person. Set up an AI assistantSee also: Voice agent, Chatbot widget, Human in the loop
- AI search
- Search that answers your question in plain sentences instead of only showing a list of links. Good AI search shows its sources, so you can click and check them. See also: Citations, Grounding, Hallucination
- API
- Short for application programming interface, a way for one app to talk to another. Developers use an AI company's API to build its models into their own apps and websites. See also: Integration, Rate limit, Tool use
- Artificial intelligence (AI)
- Computer programs that do things we used to think needed a person, like writing, talking, understanding pictures or solving problems. Most AI today learns patterns from huge piles of examples. See also: Machine learning, Generative AI, AI model
- Aspect ratio
- The shape of a picture or video, written as width to height. 1:1 is square, 16:9 is wide like a TV, 9:16 is tall like a phone screen.
- Automation
- Setting up a computer to do a task on its own every time something happens, like sending a thank-you text after each appointment. AI can write or sort the messages along the way. See also: Workflow, Integration, Lead follow-up
B
- B-roll
- Extra footage that plays over or between the main shots, like close-ups of hands, products or a busy street. AI video tools can make short b-roll clips from a text prompt. Try the video prompt makerSee also: Text-to-video, Camera movement
- Bias
- When AI leans unfairly toward some people, ideas or answers, often because of patterns in its training data. Watch for it in anything about people, like hiring, and ask for balanced views. See also: Training data, Guardrails, Fact-checking
- Browser extension
- A small add-on for your web browser that adds new features, like an AI helper that can summarize the page you are on. Only install ones you trust, since many can see what you browse. See also: Plugin, Data privacy
C
- Camera movement
- How the camera moves in a video shot, like a slow push in, a pan from side to side or a drone shot from above. Naming the move in a video prompt gives you more control. Try the video prompt makerSee also: Text-to-video, B-roll, Frame rate
- Chain of thought
- Asking the AI to work through a problem step by step before it answers. It often helps with math, planning and tricky questions.
- Chat history
- The list of your past chats saved in an AI app, so you can go back to them later. You can usually delete chats you do not want kept. See also: Memory, Data privacy, Context
- Chatbot
- An app you talk to by typing or speaking, like ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini.
- Chatbot widget
- The small chat bubble in the corner of a website. When AI runs it, visitors can ask questions, get answers and book a time, even after hours. Set up an AI assistantSee also: Chatbot, AI receptionist, Knowledge base
- Citations
- Links or notes that show where an AI got its facts. Click them to check, because AI can point to a real page that does not say what it claims, or to a source that does not exist. See also: AI search, Grounding, Hallucination
- Constraint
- A limit you set in a prompt, like "under 100 words", "no jargon" or "use only the facts below". Clear limits often fix answers that are too long or too vague. Try the prompt fixerSee also: Instruction, Output format, Prompt
- Context
- Everything the AI can see in a chat right now: your messages, its answers and any files you added. It only knows what is in the context, plus what it learned in training.
- Context window
- How much text the AI can keep in mind at once. In a very long chat it can lose track of the early parts, so starting a fresh chat sometimes helps.
- CRM
- Short for customer relationship management, software that keeps track of your customers, leads, messages and deals in one place. AI can help write follow-ups and remind you who to contact next. See also: Lead follow-up, Automation, Workflow
- Custom instructions
- Standing rules you give an AI once, so you do not have to repeat them in every chat. Custom GPTs, Claude Projects and Gemini Gems all use them.
D
- Data privacy
- Keeping your personal and business information safe and under your control. Before you paste anything into AI, leave out passwords, account numbers and private details about other people, and check the app's privacy settings. See also: Memory, Chat history, Prompt injection
- Deep research
- A mode in some AI apps where the AI spends several minutes searching many web pages, then writes a longer report with sources. It is slower than a normal answer, but more thorough. See also: AI search, Citations, Agent
- Deepfake
- A fake video, picture or voice recording made with AI to look or sound like a real person. Check surprising clips or calls with a trusted source before you believe or share them. See also: Voice cloning, Watermark, AI detector
- Delimiter
- A mark that keeps your instructions apart from text you paste in, like triple quotes or a label such as "Email:". It helps the AI tell what to do from what to work on. See also: Instruction, Prompt, Prompt injection
- Diffusion model
- A kind of AI behind many image and video tools. It starts with random noise, like TV static, and cleans it up step by step until the picture matches your prompt. See also: Image model, Seed, Text-to-image
E
- Embeddings
- Lists of numbers that capture what a piece of text means, so a computer can find things with a similar meaning. They power smart search that finds the right answer even when the words do not match. See also: Retrieval, Knowledge base, AI search
F
- Fact-checking
- Checking AI answers against a trusted source before you use them. Do it for names, numbers, dates, quotes, links and anything about health, money or the law. See also: Hallucination, Citations, Grounding
- Few-shot prompt
- A prompt that includes a few examples of what you want, so the AI can follow the pattern.
- File upload
- Adding a document, picture or spreadsheet to a chat so the AI can read it and answer questions about it. Take out private details first. See also: Context, Multimodal, Data privacy
- Fine-tuning
- Extra training that teaches a model a special style or skill. Most people never need it. A good prompt usually does the job.
- Follow-up prompt
- A message you send after the first answer to fix or improve it, like "make it shorter" or "add an example". Good answers often take one or two follow-ups. See also: Prompt, Regenerate, Prompt chain
- Frame rate
- How many still pictures a video shows each second, written as fps, short for frames per second. Higher frame rates look smoother, and lower ones can look more like a movie. See also: Resolution, Text-to-video, Camera movement
G
- Generative AI
- AI that makes new things, like text, pictures, music, voices or video, from a prompt. Chat apps and image makers are both kinds of generative AI. See also: Artificial intelligence (AI), Large language model (LLM), Diffusion model
- Grounding
- Tying an AI's answer to real sources, like a web search, a file you gave it or a company's own documents. Grounded answers are less likely to be made up. See also: Retrieval, Citations, Hallucination
- Guardrails
- Rules and filters that keep an AI from doing harmful or off-topic things, like giving dangerous how-tos or wandering off script on a business website. See also: System prompt, Jailbreak, Bias
H
- Hallucination
- When AI says something false as if it were true, like a made-up fact, quote or link. Always check facts that matter.
- Human in the loop
- Keeping a person in charge of checking or approving what AI does before it counts, like reading a reply before it is sent. It catches mistakes the AI misses. See also: Automation, Fact-checking, Agent
I
- Image model
- An AI that makes pictures from a text description. Image prompts describe what the picture should look like.
- Image-to-video
- Turning a still picture into a short moving clip with AI. You give it the image plus a prompt that says what should move and how the camera goes. Try the video prompt makerSee also: Text-to-video, Camera movement, Image model
- Inference
- The moment a trained model does its work: reading your prompt and writing an answer. Training happens once, ahead of time, and inference happens every time you use it. See also: Training data, AI model, Token
- Inpainting
- Editing just one part of an image with AI. You mark the area, like a stain on a shirt or an empty wall, and describe what should go there instead. Try the image prompt makerSee also: Outpainting, Image model, Negative prompt
- Instruction
- The part of a prompt that tells the AI what to do, like "Summarize this", "Write three subject lines" or "Explain this to a beginner". Start it with a clear action word. See also: Prompt, Constraint, Output format
- Integration
- A connection between two apps so they share information, like a website form that sends new leads straight into your CRM. Integrations let AI work with the tools you already use. See also: API, Automation, CRM
J
- Jailbreak
- A trick prompt meant to get an AI to break its own safety rules. AI companies work to block them, and using them can go against an app's rules. See also: Guardrails, Prompt injection
K
- Knowledge base
- A collection of facts and documents an AI can look things up in, like a business's prices, hours, policies and FAQs. A good one keeps a chatbot from guessing. See also: Retrieval, Grounding, Chatbot widget
- Knowledge cutoff
- The date a model's training data ends. It may not know about newer events unless the app lets it search the web.
L
- Large language model (LLM)
- The kind of AI behind chat apps. It learned from a huge amount of text and writes by predicting what words should come next.
- Lead follow-up
- Getting back to people who asked about your business, by text, email or call, until they book or say no. AI can write the messages, and automations can send them on time. See also: CRM, Automation, AI receptionist
- Lip sync
- Matching a person's mouth movements in a video to spoken words. AI can lip sync a face to new audio, which helps with translations but is also how some deepfakes are made. See also: Deepfake, Text-to-speech, Voice cloning
M
- Machine learning
- A way of building AI where the computer learns patterns from lots of examples, instead of a person writing every rule by hand. See also: Artificial intelligence (AI), Training data, Neural network
- Memory
- A feature in some AI apps that saves facts about you across chats, like your job or how you like answers. Check your settings to see what it saved and to turn it off. See also: Custom instructions, Chat history, Data privacy
- Meta prompt
- A prompt that asks the AI to write or improve another prompt, like "Rewrite this prompt so it is clearer and asks me questions first." Try the prompt fixerSee also: Prompt engineering, Prompt template, Prompt
- Multimodal
- An AI that works with more than text, like pictures, sound or video.
N
- Negative prompt
- A list of things you do not want in an AI image or video, like "no text, no blur, no extra fingers". Some tools have a box for it, and in others you add it to the main prompt. Try the image prompt makerSee also: Image model, Inpainting, Seed
- Neural network
- The kind of computer system inside most modern AI, loosely inspired by the brain. It is made of many tiny math units linked together that adjust as it learns. See also: Machine learning, Parameters, Large language model (LLM)
O
- One-shot prompt
- A prompt that includes exactly one example of what you want, so the AI can copy its style or shape. With two or more examples, it becomes a few-shot prompt. See also: Zero-shot prompt, Few-shot prompt, Prompt template
- Open-weight model
- An AI model whose inner settings, called weights, are shared publicly, so anyone can download it and run it on their own computer. People sometimes call it open source, but the rules for using it vary. See also: Parameters, AI model, Fine-tuning
- Outpainting
- Asking AI to extend an image past its edges, like turning a tall phone photo into a wide banner. The AI makes up what might be just outside the frame. Try the image prompt makerSee also: Inpainting, Aspect ratio, Image model
- Output format
- The shape you want the answer in, like a bulleted list, a table, a short email or three options to pick from. Saying the format up front saves rewrites. See also: Instruction, Constraint, Prompt
P
- Parameters
- The many tiny number settings inside a model that were tuned during training and hold what it learned. A model with more parameters is bigger, but not always better for your task. See also: AI model, Training data, Open-weight model
- Persona
- A character or point of view you ask the AI to take on, like a patient teacher or a blunt editor. It changes the tone, the words and what the AI pays attention to. See also: Role prompt, Tone, System prompt
- Photorealistic
- An image style that looks like a real photo, not a drawing or painting. In an image prompt, add camera and light details, like "close-up, soft window light", to push it that way. Try the image prompt makerSee also: Image model, Style reference, Resolution
- Placeholder
- A part of a prompt in [square brackets] that marks a detail you fill in, like [your city]. On Prolific Prompt, each one becomes a box to type in.
- Plugin
- An add-on that gives an AI app a new skill, like reading your calendar or working with another app. Different apps use different names for them. See also: Integration, Tool use, Browser extension
- Projects
- A feature in some AI apps that keeps related chats, files and instructions together, so the AI has the same background every time you work on that topic. Set up an AI assistantSee also: Custom instructions, File upload, Memory
- Prompt
- What you type to an AI to tell it what you want. A good prompt says who the AI should be, the goal, the context, the format and the tone.
- Prompt chain
- A series of prompts you run in order in the same chat, each one building on the answers before it. Make a prompt chain
- Prompt engineering
- The skill of writing and testing prompts to get better, more reliable answers from AI. For most people it just means being clear, giving context and showing an example. Try the prompt fixerSee also: Prompt, Meta prompt, Prompt template
- Prompt injection
- Hidden instructions placed in a web page, email or file to trick an AI into doing something you did not ask for. Be careful letting AI agents read and act on things from strangers. See also: Jailbreak, Agent, Delimiter
- Prompt template
- A ready-made prompt with blanks to fill in, like [your city] or [the customer's name]. You use it again and again and only change the details. See also: Placeholder, Prompt, One-shot prompt
R
- Rate limit
- A cap on how many requests you can send to an AI in a short time. If you hit it, you get an error or a short wait, then you can go again. See also: Usage limit, API
- Reasoning model
- A model that takes extra time to think through a problem in steps before it answers. It tends to do better on math, logic and planning, but it is slower. See also: Chain of thought, AI model, Inference
- Regenerate
- Asking the AI for a new answer to the same message, often with a retry button. Each try comes out a little different, so it helps when the first answer misses. See also: Temperature, Follow-up prompt, Seed
- Resolution
- How many pixels, or tiny dots, a picture or video has, which sets how sharp it looks. Higher resolution shows more detail and prints better, but makes bigger files. See also: Upscaling, Aspect ratio, Frame rate
- Retrieval
- When an AI looks up useful information, from the web, your files or a company's documents, before it answers. Experts call this RAG, short for retrieval-augmented generation. See also: Grounding, Knowledge base, Embeddings
- Role prompt
- A prompt that starts by telling the AI who to be, like "You are a patient math tutor". It shapes the voice and the know-how in the answer.
S
- Seed
- A number that sets the starting point for an AI image or video. In tools that let you set it, the same seed and prompt give a very similar result, and a new seed gives a new take. See also: Diffusion model, Regenerate, Negative prompt
- Speech-to-text
- AI that turns spoken words into written text, like meeting notes, voice memos or captions. It is also called transcription. See also: Text-to-speech, Voice mode, Multimodal
- Style reference
- An image you give an AI image tool so it copies the look, like the colors, lighting or brush strokes, without copying what is in the picture. Try the image prompt makerSee also: Image model, Photorealistic, Image-to-video
- System prompt
- Instructions an app gives the AI before your message, to set its rules and style. You usually do not see it.
T
- Temperature
- A setting for how predictable or surprising the AI's writing is. Low is steady and safe. High is more creative. Most chat apps set it for you.
- Text-to-image
- Making a picture from a written description. You type what you want to see, and an image model creates it from scratch. Try the image prompt makerSee also: Image model, Diffusion model, Negative prompt
- Text-to-speech
- AI that reads written text out loud in a natural-sounding voice. It is used for voice assistants, narration and phone agents. See also: Speech-to-text, Voice cloning, Voice agent
- Text-to-video
- Making a short video clip from a written description. Good video prompts say the subject, the setting, the camera move, the light and the length. Try the video prompt makerSee also: Image-to-video, Camera movement, B-roll
- Token
- A small chunk of text, often part of a word. AI reads and writes in tokens. In English, one token is about 4 characters on average.
- Tone
- How writing sounds and feels, like warm, formal, funny or firm. Name the tone you want in your prompt, or paste a sample of your own writing for the AI to match. See also: Persona, Role prompt, Output format
- Tool use
- When an AI uses outside tools to help answer, like a web search, a calculator, a calendar or another app. It is how agents get real tasks done. See also: Agent, Plugin, API
- Training data
- The text, pictures and other material a model learned from before you ever used it.
U
- Upscaling
- Making a picture or video bigger and sharper with AI, which fills in fine detail. It is handy before you print an image or show it on a large screen. See also: Resolution, Inpainting
- Usage limit
- A cap on how much you can use an AI app over a set time, like a few hours, a day or a month, often based on your plan. When you reach it, you wait for it to reset. See also: Rate limit, Token
V
- Voice agent
- An AI that talks with people on the phone in a natural voice. It can answer questions, take messages and book appointments, then pass the call to a person when needed. See also: AI receptionist, Text-to-speech, Speech-to-text
- Voice cloning
- Using AI to copy a real person's voice from a recording. It can help with narration, but scammers misuse it, so agree on a family code word for urgent calls asking for money. See also: Deepfake, Text-to-speech, Voice agent
- Voice mode
- A way to talk with an AI app out loud and hear it answer, a bit like a phone call. It is handy when your hands are busy. See also: Speech-to-text, Text-to-speech, Multimodal
W
- Watermark
- A mark added to an image, video or sound file to show where it came from. Some AI tools add hidden ones to label AI-made content, though they can sometimes be removed. See also: Deepfake, AI detector
- Workflow
- A set of steps that run in order to get a job done, like a form coming in, the lead going into your CRM and a welcome text going out. AI can handle the steps that need writing. See also: Automation, Integration, CRM
Z
- Zero-shot prompt
- Asking the AI to do something with no examples, just instructions. Most everyday prompts are zero-shot.