Quick reference

Plain-English glossary

Every bit of jargon you'll hear, in one line each. Tap a term to expand it. Bookmark this page.

If you remember only 5 things

  1. It predicts the next word, over and over — that single move is the whole engine.
  2. Inside, it's billions of dials (a neural network) that turn your words into a next-word guess.
  3. It learned by guessing the next word a trillion times — measuring its error and nudging those dials — then was tuned into a helpful assistant. It was never programmed with facts.
  4. It can be confidently wrong. Always verify anything that matters — facts, numbers, names, dates.
  5. Clear prompts get great answers. Give it a role, context, examples, and the format you want.

Back to the start

That's the whole story — from the words you type to the answer you get back. Nicely done.