AI glossary

A parameter is a variable within an AI system used to make predictions. The more advanced the LLM, the more parameters the model contains. It is believed that GPT-4 contains several hundred billion parameters.

A paraphrasing tool, also known as a paraphraser or paraphrasing tool, is a type of AI writer that automatically rewrites a user's text (in other words). You can use the Scribbr paraphrasing tool, powered by QuillBot, for free.

Perplexity, or perplexiteit in Dutch, is a measure of how unpredictable a text is. A text with high perplexity reads more unnaturally or nonsensically than a text with low perplexity. AI writers typically produce texts with relatively low perplexity because there is a greater chance that they make sense. Therefore, perplexity, in combination with burstiness, is used as a method for AI detectors to distinguish AI texts from human texts. AI writers can have a temperature setting that allows the user to produce text with higher perplexity.

Plagiarism is presenting someone else's words or ideas as your own. This happens, for example, when you copy text from another writer and present it as your work without citing the source. Currently, there is a heated debate about whether the tools themselves commit plagiarism based on their training data (for example, do AI image generators steal the work of artists?) and whether the uncredited use of AI writers in academic texts can be considered plagiarism. Educational institutions are still developing policies on the use of AI tools and possible citations. You can consult our current overview of AI guidelines by educational institution.

Programming is giving instructions to a computer in the form of programs that consist of computer code. This code can be written in various programming languages, such as C++ or Python. Computer programs often use algorithms.

A prompt is the (textual) input from the user to which a generative AI model (such as ChatGPT) responds. The development of clear prompts that yield useful results and avoid undesirable outcomes is called prompt engineering.