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Plain-English explainers for the ideas behind the headlines, each built from linked sources.
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9 explainers
What are AI agents?
An AI agent is an AI system that decides its own next steps and uses tools to get a task done, instead of just answering one question. That makes agents powerful, and harder to control.
Read the explainer →What are open-weight AI models?
An open-weight AI model is one whose trained parameters (the 'weights') are published for anyone to download and run. That's not the same as fully open-source AI, which also shares training data and code.
Read the explainer →What do the levels of self-driving mean?
Self-driving is graded on six levels, from 0 (you do everything) to 5 (the car drives anywhere by itself). The big line is between Level 2, where you must supervise, and Level 3 and up, where the system is driving.
Read the explainer →What is a cobot?
A cobot, or collaborative robot, is a robot designed to work safely right next to people, without the safety cages that surround traditional industrial robots.
Read the explainer →What is a humanoid robot?
A humanoid robot is a machine built in the shape of a person, with a torso, head, arms and usually legs, so it can work in spaces and with tools designed for humans.
Read the explainer →What is a large language model (LLM)?
A large language model is an AI system trained on huge amounts of text to predict the next word. That simple skill, at massive scale, lets it write, summarize, translate and answer questions.
Read the explainer →What is a robotaxi?
A robotaxi is a ride-hailing car that drives itself with no human driver. Today they run only inside mapped service areas, in a handful of cities in the US and China.
Read the explainer →What is a TPU?
A TPU (tensor processing unit) is a chip Google designed specifically to speed up machine learning. It's built for the huge matrix math that neural networks run on.
Read the explainer →What is AGI (artificial general intelligence)?
AGI means AI that can match or beat humans across most thinking tasks, not just one. It's the stated goal of labs like OpenAI, but there's no agreed definition and experts disagree sharply on when, or whether, it will arrive.
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