User Guide to AI terminology

With the exponential growth
of Artificial intelligence (AI) and
continuing controversy surrounding
its use, Graphic News explains
six terms rapidly
entering our
everyday
vocabulary

PT Expo
China.
Beijing,
Sep 2026

MAJOR AI PIONEERS

AI
Artificial intelligence
is technology that
can do things normally
associated with human
intelligence – current
systems can only
perform clearly
defined tasks 

AI AGENT
Autonomous software
programme using AI models
to set goals, break down
tasks, and take independent
actions using external tools.
Agents have caused fear
industry is moving too
fast and needs regulation

Anthropic
Develops Claude
assistant family.
CEO: Dario Amodei

TOKENS
Small chunks of text AI
models use to read and
write language – in English,
one token is around four
characters. Companies
charge money based
on how many input
and output tokens used

OpenAI
Creates GPT series of
large language models.
CEO: Sam Altman

GENERATIVE AI
Creates new content
such as text, images
and video in response
to specific instructions,
known as prompts.
For example, “Explain
climate change in
50 words”

MACHINE LEARNING
Type of AI that
learns patterns from
large amounts of data
to make predictions.
Social media platforms
use this to recommend
posts based on our
previous interactions

LARGE LANGUAGE MODEL
AI trained on vast amounts
of text to understand and
generate language. LLMs
power tools such as
ChatGPT but can
produce convincing
yet false information,
known as hallucinations

NVIDIA: Builds
processing units and
software ecosystems.
CEO: Jensen Huang

Sources: BBC, Reuters
Pictures: Getty Images
© GRAPHIC NEWS