Foundation Model
A large AI model trained on broad data that can be adapted to a wide range of downstream tasks — examples include GPT-4, Claude, Gemini, and Llama.
In 2024, 67% of notable foundation models were released with open weights. The compute used to train them doubles roughly every 6 months. Training costs for frontier foundation models range from $78–191 million. The largest models exceed 1 trillion parameters. Meta's Llama family, OpenAI's GPT series, Google's Gemini, and Anthropic's Claude are among the most prominent foundation model families.
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Related Terms
Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)
A hypothetical form of AI that can understand, learn, and apply knowledge across any intellectual task at or above human level, rather than being specialized for specific tasks.
AI Alignment
The research field focused on ensuring AI systems behave in accordance with human values and intentions, particularly as systems become more capable.
AI Compute
The computational resources — primarily GPU and TPU processing power — required to train and run AI models, typically measured in FLOP (floating-point operations) or GPU-hours.
Capex (Capital Expenditure)
Long-term investment spending by companies on physical assets like data centers, GPU clusters, and networking infrastructure — the backbone of AI deployment at scale.
ChatGPT
OpenAI's conversational AI assistant, launched in November 2022, which catalyzed the current generative AI boom by demonstrating the capabilities of large language models to a mainstream audience.
Data Center
A facility housing computer systems and infrastructure used to process, store, and distribute data — increasingly built specifically for AI training and inference workloads.
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