AI jargon buster: 30 words explained in plain English

AI comes with a lot of new words, and most of them describe something simpler than they sound. Here are the 30 you’re most likely to meet, in alphabetical order, each explained in a sentence or two. You don’t need to learn them. Just look one up when it trips you over.

A to C

Agent. An AI that doesn’t only answer, but carries out a job with several steps for you, such as searching websites and filling in a form. Useful, but it needs more trust, so most beginners can leave agents for later.

AI (artificial intelligence). Computer software that does things we used to think needed a human mind, like writing, recognising pictures or holding a conversation. When people say “AI” today they usually mean tools like ChatGPT and Claude.

AI assistant. A friendly name for a tool you ask for help in ordinary language. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot and Siri are all AI assistants. See The AI already on your phone.

Beta. An early version of a feature that’s still being finished. It’s fine to use, but expect a few rough edges.

Chat. One conversation with an AI assistant. Start a new chat when you change subject, so old details don’t muddle the new answers.

Chatbot. Any program you talk to by typing or speaking. The older ones on shopping websites follow a script. The newer ones, like ChatGPT and Claude, can talk about almost anything.

Connector. A link between your AI assistant and another app, such as your email or calendar, so it can look things up there with your permission. You choose what to connect, and you can switch it off again.

Context. Everything the AI can “see” while it answers: your question, the rest of the chat, and any files you’ve added. More useful context usually means a better answer.

Custom GPT. A ready-made version of ChatGPT set up for one job, like a recipe helper. OpenAI has said it plans to replace these with plugins (see below).

Custom instructions. A short note you write once, telling your AI who you are and how you like answers. It then applies to every chat, which saves a lot of repeating yourself.

D to H

Deepfake. A fake photo, video or voice recording made with AI to look or sound like a real person. Often used in scams, so be wary of anything urgent or surprising. See Is this a scam?

Deep research. A mode where the AI spends several minutes searching and reading lots of sources, then writes you a longer report with links. Handy for big decisions; still worth checking.

Free plan and paid plan. Every main AI tool has a free version that’s good enough to start with. Paying (usually about £20 a month) gets you more use and some extra features. See Do I need to pay for AI?

Generative AI. AI that makes new things, such as text, pictures, music or video, as opposed to AI that only sorts or spots things. ChatGPT and Claude are generative AI.

Hallucination. When an AI states something false as if it were fact: a made-up quote, a wrong date, a book that doesn’t exist. It isn’t lying on purpose. It’s a known weakness, and the reason you check anything important. See When AI gets it wrong.

I to M

Image generation. Asking an AI to make a picture from a description, such as “a watercolour of a robin on a spade”.

Incognito chat (or temporary chat). A private chat that isn’t saved to your history or remembered afterwards. Good for a one-off question you’d rather not keep.

Limit. The cap on how much you can use an AI tool in a set time. Free plans have lower limits. If you hit one, you wait a few hours or carry on tomorrow.

LLM (large language model). The technical name for the technology inside ChatGPT, Claude and the rest. It has learned the patterns of language from an enormous amount of text. You’ll never need to say “LLM” out loud.

Memory. A feature that lets your AI remember things about you between chats, like your job or that you’re vegetarian. You can see what it has remembered, and delete it, in Settings.

Model. The “brain” behind an AI tool. Each company has several, with names and numbers that change often. You can safely ignore them: the app picks a sensible one for you.

P to S

Plugin. An add-on that gives an AI assistant an extra skill or connects it to another service. Much the same idea as a connector.

Project. A folder inside ChatGPT or Claude that keeps related chats, files and instructions together, for example “Holiday planning” or “My business”. Every chat in the Project already knows the background.

Prompt. Whatever you type or say to the AI. That’s all. A question is a prompt, and so is “make this email friendlier”. Our guide How to ask AI shows how to write good ones.

Search (web search). When the AI looks things up on the internet before answering, and shows you links to where it found them. Without search, it relies on what it learned in training, which may be out of date.

T to V

Token. A small chunk of text, roughly a short word or part of a longer one. AI tools measure how much they read and write in tokens. It’s only worth knowing because limits are counted this way.

Training. How an AI model learns in the first place: by being shown a vast amount of text and finding the patterns in it. Separately, most tools have a privacy setting for whether your own chats can be used to help train future models. You can switch that off.

Upload. Giving the AI a file to look at, such as a photo, PDF or spreadsheet, usually with a paperclip or plus button. You can then ask questions about it.

Voice clone. An AI copy of a real person’s voice, made from a short recording. Criminals use these to pretend to be a relative in trouble. If a call feels off, hang up and ring the person back on a number you know.

Voice mode. Talking to your AI out loud and hearing it reply, a bit like a phone call. Good for when your hands are full or typing is a nuisance.

A word you can’t find?

Ask your AI. Type “explain [word] in plain English, in two sentences” and it will. That’s one of the things it’s best at. For the bigger picture, read What is AI? A plain-English guide.

Next step

Jargon is much easier once you’ve used the thing. Our free AI Setup Checklist gets you set up with ChatGPT or Claude in under 30 minutes, no special words required.