AI Capabilities Vocabulary

capabilities that suddenly appear at certain model scales without being explicitly trained

“Chain-of-thought reasoning emerged only in models above a certain size.”

Origin: Latin emergere `to rise out` + ability

learning to perform new tasks from examples provided in the prompt without weight updates

“In-context learning let the model translate to a new language from just five examples.”

Origin: Latin in + contextus `weaving together` + learning

applying knowledge learned from one task to perform better on different tasks

“Transfer learning from English improved the model's performance on French.”

Origin: Latin transferre `to carry across` + learning

capable of processing multiple types of input like text, images, and audio

“The multimodal model could answer questions about uploaded photos.”

Origin: Latin multi- `many` + modus `manner, mode`

the ability to draw conclusions through logical steps from given information

“Multi-step reasoning allowed the model to solve complex word problems.”

Origin: Latin ratio `calculation, reason` from reri `to think`

an internal representation of how the world works used for prediction and planning

“The model's world model understood that dropped objects fall down.”

Origin: Old English weorold `human existence` + Latin modulus `small measure`

building complex meanings from combinations of simpler parts

“Compositionality lets us understand 'blue rectangular box' from knowing each word.”

Origin: Latin componere `to put together` + -ality

applying learned patterns to new, previously unseen situations

“Good generalization meant the model could classify animals it never saw in training.”

Origin: Latin generalis `relating to all` + -ization

forming general concepts from specific instances

“The model learned the abstraction 'mammal' from examples of dogs, cats, and whales.”

Origin: Latin abstrahere `to drag away` from abs- + trahere `to draw`

connecting language to real-world entities, actions, or perceptions

“Tool use provides grounding by letting the model verify facts against reality.”

Origin: Old English grund `bottom, foundation`