LEARN AI · GLOSSARY

AI WORDS IN PLAIN ENGLISH

The words you will hear about AI and Claude, each explained in a sentence or two, with a link to the lesson that covers it.

AI: Software that does tasks we used to think needed a person, like writing, summarising or answering questions. Claude is one example. Learn more in "What AI is".
Model: The program behind Claude, made by reading a huge library of text. Claude comes in several models (Haiku, Sonnet, Opus, Fable) made by Anthropic. Learn more in "How it works".
Training: How the model learned: by reading a huge library of text before anyone talks to it. Its knowledge stops when training ends. Learn more in "How it works".
Prompt: The message you write to Claude. A good prompt reads like a good brief: who, goal, format, limits. Learn more in "Asking well".
Token: A small chunk of text, often a word or part of a word. Limits and prices are counted in tokens. Learn more in "How it works".
Context window: How much text Claude can look at at once: its desk. Today about a million tokens, roughly 1,500 pages. Learn more in "How it works".
Making things up: When Claude writes something that sounds right but is not, like a fake number or quote. Experts call it "hallucination". Learn more in "What AI is".
Web search: A setting that lets Claude look things up online and show links to its sources. Learn more in "Search, Artifacts, Connectors and Skills".
Research: A deeper search: Claude reads many sources over a few minutes and writes a report. Paid plans. Learn more in "Search, Artifacts, Connectors and Skills".
Artifact: Something Claude builds for you in its own panel, like a document, presentation or checklist, that you can edit, download and share. Learn more in "Search, Artifacts, Connectors and Skills".
Project: A space for one topic with its own documents and instructions. Every chat in it starts with them. Paid plans. Learn more in "Giving it your material".
Memory: Useful things Claude remembers about you across chats. You can view and edit it in Settings. Learn more in "Giving it your material".
Connector: Approved access from Claude to one of your other apps, like a shared drive, email or calendar. Learn more in "Search, Artifacts, Connectors and Skills".
Skill: A saved set of instructions for doing one kind of task well, which Claude picks up when needed. Learn more in "Search, Artifacts, Connectors and Skills".
Cowork: A way to hand Claude a whole job with many steps, working only in the folders and tools you connect. Paid plans only. Learn more in "Search, Artifacts, Connectors and Skills".
Effort: A setting for how hard Claude thinks: Low, Medium, High, Extra high or Max. Higher is more careful and slower, and uses your allowance faster. Learn more in "Using it well, within your limits".
Usage limit: How much you can use Claude on your plan before you need to wait for it to reset. Settings, then Usage, shows how much you have used. Learn more in "Using it well, within your limits".
Admin: The person who manages your company's Claude account and decides which features and connectors staff can use. Learn more in "Giving it your material".
Personal data: Anything that can identify a person: names, contact details, account numbers, health or HR records. Learn more in "Safe, private and fair".
Hidden instructions: Text in a web page, email or file written to trick AI into doing something you did not ask. Experts call it "prompt injection". Learn more in "Safe, private and fair".