IT Glossary

AI Act

Also: EU AI Act, AI Regulation, Artificial Intelligence Act

EU regulation governing AI systems according to risk levels - in force since August 2024, deadlines for High-Risk AI postponed to 2027/2028 by the Digital Omnibus

AI Assurance

Also: Artificial Intelligence Assurance

Systematic generation, evaluation, and communication of evidence to enable justified trust in relevant properties and the use of an AI system

AI Evaluation

Also: AI Evaluation and Testing, LLM Evaluation

Systematic evaluation of the properties, results, and behavior of an AI system based on defined criteria

API

Also: Application Programming Interface, Interface, Programming Interface, REST API, Web API

An interface that allows programs to communicate with each other without requiring human intervention

Architecture Conformance

Also: Architecture Compliance

Conformance of the actual structure and implementation of a system with defined architectural specifications

Artificial Intelligence

Also: AI

Umbrella term for methods that automate tasks previously performed primarily by humans

→ Artificial Intelligence as an Umbrella Term

Chat Model

Also: Instruct Model, Instruction-Tuned Model

Foundation Model adapted through fine-tuning for conversational behavior and instruction following

→ How a Language Model Works

Cloud Act

Also: CLOUD Act, Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act, US Cloud Act

US law that allows U.S. authorities to access data held by U.S. companies worldwide, regardless of where the servers are located

Cloud Model

Also: Cloud API, Cloud-Based Model

Language model that runs on a provider's infrastructure and is accessed through an API

→ Local AI Models: Concepts and Requirements

Compound Words

Also: Compound Word, Compounds

Compound words that tokenizers often split into multiple fragments - particularly relevant in German

→ Prompts: Why Wording Changes the Answer

Context Engineering

Also: Context Management

Systematic design and provision of the context relevant to a specific AI task

Context Window

Also: Context Length

Maximum number of tokens that a language model can process at the same time

→ How a Language Model Works

CPU

Also: Processor, Central Processing Unit, Main Processor

Versatile main processor of a computer with a small number of powerful cores and comparatively limited parallelism

→ Local AI Models: Concepts and Requirements

Deployer

Also: AI Act Deployer

Under the AI Act, the role of the person or organization that professionally uses an AI system under its own responsibility

Deterministic

Also: Determinism

Property of a computation that produces the same output for identical input - for language models, depending on the inference configuration, especially the temperature setting

→ Prompts: Why Wording Changes the Answer

Digital Omnibus

Also: AI Omnibus, Digital Omnibus on AI

EU legislative package (not an official legal title, but a commonly used collective term) that amends several existing digital laws—including the AI Act—through a single legislative procedure

Digital Sovereignty

Also: Digital Independence, Technological Sovereignty

Ability to make autonomous decisions about digital systems, data, and dependencies and to remain capable of acting when conditions change

Fault Tolerance

Also: Fault-Tolerant System, Error Handling

Ability of a system to continue providing its required function despite certain faults

Fine-Tuning

Also: Fine Adjustment, Additional Training

Additional training of an already trained Foundation Model for a specific task or style

→ How a Language Model Works

Foundation Model

Also: Base Model, Foundation Model

Language model directly after pretraining, without additional fine-tuning for conversational behavior

→ How a Language Model Works

GDPR

Also: General Data Protection Regulation, EU Data Protection Regulation, EU GDPR

EU law that regulates how organizations must handle personal data - in force since May 2018

General-Purpose AI

Also: GPAI, General-Purpose AI Model, Foundation Model (AI Act context)

Category defined by the AI Act for AI models with a wide range of possible uses, such as those underlying modern language models

GGUF

Also: GGUF Format, GGUF File

File format for quantized language models that enables local execution with tools such as llama.cpp or Ollama

→ Local AI Models: Concepts and Requirements

Golden Share

Also: Special Share, Special Stock, Veto Share

A special share that grants its holder veto rights over important corporate decisions—often used by governments to retain control

GPU

Also: Graphics Processor, Graphics Processing Unit

Processor that performs many simple computations in parallel, making it particularly well suited for language model inference

→ Local AI Models: Concepts and Requirements

Hallucination

Also: AI Hallucination

Plausible-sounding but factually incorrect information generated by a language model

→ How a Language Model Works

High-Risk AI

Also: High-Risk AI System

AI system that, under the AI Act, poses significant risks to safety or fundamental rights and is therefore subject to strict obligations—high risk is a property of the use, not of the technology

Inference

Use of a trained language model to generate a response without changing the model itself

→ How a Language Model Works

Interface

Also: System Interface, Technical Interface

Defined boundary between systems or system components at which relevant properties, interactions, or relationships are specified

Interoperability

Also: Interoperable Systems

Ability of different systems to exchange information and use it meaningfully in the respective context

IP Address

Also: IP, Internet Protocol Address, IPv4, IPv6, Public IP, Private IP

Unique number that identifies every device on a network - like a mailing address for computers

→ IP Addresses and Ports: The Foundation of Self-Hosting

Language Model

Also: LLM, Large Language Model

Neural network specialized in processing text and representing language as probability calculations

→ How a Language Model Works

Legacy Modernization

Also: Legacy System Modernization, Application Modernization, Legacy Migration

Targeted modification of existing systems and their environment without automatically equating modernization with complete replacement

Legacy System

Also: Legacy Software, Legacy IT

Existing system whose continued operation, modification, or replacement may be complicated by technical or organizational dependencies

Local Model

Also: On-Premises Model

Language model that runs on local hardware instead of being accessed through a provider's cloud API

→ Local AI Models: Concepts and Requirements

Low-Tech

Also: Low Tech, Low Technology, Low-Tech Approach, Simple Systems

Technical design approach that meets an actual need with a solution that is as appropriate, understandable, durable, and manageable as possible

Lua

Also: Lua Programming Language, Lua 5.1, LuaJIT

Lightweight embeddable programming language from Brazil, developed at a university without corporate funding

Neural Network

Also: Artificial Neural Network

Mathematical function with trainable weights that progressively transforms input values into output values

→ How a Language Model Works

Observability

Also: System Observability

Property of a system that makes its internal state sufficiently examinable through observable information

Open Data Format

Also: Open Format

Data format whose technical structure and meaning are sufficiently publicly documented so that independent implementations can create, read, and process data

Parameter

Also: Model Parameter, Weights, Weight

Trainable numerical values in a neural network that determine the behavior of a language model

→ How a Language Model Works

Policy as Code

Also: Policy-as-Code, PaC, Machine-Readable Policies

Formalization of rules and policies in machine-readable form so that compliance with them can be evaluated automatically

PRISM

Also: PRISM Program, NSA PRISM, US-5334

Classified NSA surveillance program that provides standardized access to data held by U.S. technology companies based on Section 702 orders

Probabilistic

Also: Probabilistic System, Probability-Based System

Property of a model or system in which probabilities are part of the calculation or description of possible outcomes

Prompt

Also: Input, User Prompt

Text input that forms the starting point for a language model's computation

→ Prompts: Why Wording Changes the Answer

Prompt Engineering

Also: Prompt Design, Prompt Creation

Deliberate formulation of prompts to increase the likelihood of a more suitable model response

→ Prompts: Why Wording Changes the Response

Prompt Injection

Conflicting instruction placed within the context that competes with the System Prompt or the user's intent for the same probability distribution

→ Prompts: Why Wording Changes the Answer

Provider

Also: AI Act Provider

Under the AI Act, the role of the person or organization that develops an AI system and places it on the market under its own name or trademark

Quantization

Also: Model Quantization

Reduction of the numerical precision of model parameters to decrease memory usage and computational cost

→ Local AI Models: Concepts and Requirements

RAM

Also: System Memory, Random Access Memory, Main Memory

Fast, volatile computer memory that stores model parameters for processing by the CPU

→ Local AI Models: Concepts and Requirements

Resilience

Also: System Resilience, Resilient Systems

Ability of a system to maintain, restore, or adaptively continue essential functions under disruptions and changes

RSS

Also: RSS Feed, Really Simple Syndication, Rich Site Summary, Feed, Atom Feed, Web Feed

Standardized format for subscribing to website content without relying on platform algorithms

Self-Attention

Also: Attention Mechanism

Mechanism that relates every token to every other token within the context to determine its meaning

→ How a Language Model Works

Self-Hosting

Also: Self Hosting, Self-Hosted Operation

Operation of a digital service or system under one's own technical and organizational responsibility

Shadow Ban

Also: Invisible Ban, Reach Restriction, Algorithmic Filtering, Hidden Censorship, Shadowban

Your posts remain online but are shown to far fewer people—without informing you.

Solution Architecture

Also: System Architecture

Architectural description of a concrete solution for a defined problem or set of requirements

SSD

Also: Solid State Drive, Flash Storage, NVMe SSD, SATA SSD

Storage device with no moving parts—faster and more durable than traditional hard drives, but with a finite write endurance

System Prompt

Also: System Instruction

Instruction text sent to the model before the user's input that establishes a framework without enforcing it

→ Prompts: Why Wording Changes the Answer

Systems Analysis

Also: System Analysis

Structured examination of a system, its properties, and relationships as a basis for technical decisions

Systems Architecture

Also: System Architecture

Fundamental structure of a system with its elements, relationships, interfaces, and the principles according to which it is organized

Systems Integration

Also: System Integration

Connection of different components or systems into a cooperating overall system

Tech Foundation

Also: Technology Foundation, Software Foundation, Open Source Foundation, Tech Foundation, Foundation

Organization that manages open-source projects - often funded and influenced by large technology companies

Temperature

Also: Sampling Temperature

Setting that controls how predictable or varied a language model selects tokens

→ Prompts: Why Wording Changes the Answer

Token

Also: Tokens, Language Model Token

Smallest unit of text processed by a language model - part of a word, a whole word, or a sequence of characters

→ How a Language Model Works

Tokenization

Also: Tokenizing, Tokenizer

Breaking text into tokens before a language model can process it

→ Prompts: Why Wording Changes the Answer

Training

Also: Model Training, Pretraining

Process in which the parameters of a neural network are adjusted using example data

→ How a Language Model Works

Transformer

Also: Transformer Architecture, Transformer Model

Neural network architecture that relates tokens through Self-Attention and forms the foundation of modern language models

→ How a Language Model Works

Transparency Obligation

Also: Transparency Obligations, Disclosure Obligation

AI Act requirement that certain AI systems or their outputs must be recognizable as such to humans

Venture Capital

Also: VC, Risk Capital, Startup Capital, Equity Investor, Equity Financing

Investors provide millions in funding to startups in exchange for company shares and influence over business decisions

Verification and Validation

Also: Verification & Validation, V&V

Evaluation of whether a system meets specified requirements and is suitable for its intended use

VRAM

Also: Graphics Memory, Video RAM

Memory directly attached to the GPU that limits the maximum model size during GPU-accelerated inference

→ Local AI Models: Concepts and Requirements