TechScape: Seven top AI acronyms explained

Neural network

Neural networks are the fundamental technology at the heart of the AI boom. Think of them as the equivalent of the steam engine in the first Industrial Revolution: a general-purpose technology that can reach out into myriad different industries and use cases and transform them.

First conceived in the 1940s, neural networks began as efforts to model animal brains, which are made of millions of simple neurons each connected to a few others. Each individual neuron is extremely simple, but quantity begets quality, and enough of them together can learn to perform complex tasks. And the same is true of artificial neural networks, though those neurons are purely algorithmic ideas rather than physical connections.

Like the steam engine, it took decades for the true power of the invention to be understood. A neural network only works with enormous quantities of computing power and data, so they have been curios for most of the last 70 years. That changed at the turn of the millennium, and the age of AI began sputtering slowing into existence.

LLM

GAN

Compute

Black box

Fine tuning

Alignment

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