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Friday, 4 September 2026 · Clarity since 2026
Glossary

What is LLM (language model)?

An LLM (large language model) is an AI model trained to understand and produce text.

LLM stands for large language model. It is trained on enormous amounts of text and is therefore good with language: writing, summarizing, translating, answering questions. ChatGPT, Copilot and Gemini all run on an LLM. It keeps guessing the most likely next piece of text.

What this means for you

Almost every writing or talking AI tool is an LLM. Understand this type and you understand most of the tools you meet.

Put precisely

A language model predicts text, it does not look anything up. If a tool does show sources, that is a search feature built around it, not the model itself.

Common misconception

That the model calculates or thinks. It puts down the most likely next bit, even for a maths question.


Related words

ModelGenerative AITokenChatGPT

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