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A plain-English guide to AI jargon

This photograph shows a figurine in front of the logo of the US artificial intelligence safety and research company Anthropic during a photo session in Paris on February 13, 2026. (Joel Saget / AFP via Getty Images)
Joel Saget / AFP via Getty Images
This photograph shows a figurine in front of the logo of the US artificial intelligence safety and research company Anthropic during a photo session in Paris on February 13, 2026. (Joel Saget / AFP via Getty Images)

It’s hard to crack open a newspaper or watch the news without a new story about artificial intelligence, or AI, as we now call it. But deciphering what’s being said, with the jargon expanding as quickly as the armies of rogue bots, has most of us scratching our heads. What is an ‘agent’? What’s a sandbox (hint, it’s not real and it holds no sand)? And what about ‘recursive self-improvement,’ ‘distillation,’ or ‘the singularity’?

Boston Globe columnist Larry Edelman joins Here & Now‘s Robin Young to define some of the most common AI terms and explain their significance. His recent column in the Boston Globe is “AI making your head spin? Here’s a plain English guide to the jargon.”

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

Copyright 2026 WBUR

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