Another way to say “technology”

When an AI model confidently generates false information — citing non-existent sources, inventing people, fabricating quotes. A core limitation of LLMs.

Building software by describing what you want to an AI and accepting whatever it produces — often without reading the code. Less engineering, more directing.

Cross-Origin Resource Sharing. The browser security feature that blocks your frontend from calling APIs on a different domain unless the server explicitly allows it. Universal source of developer despair.

Low-effort AI-generated content flooding the internet — generic images, soulless blog posts, fake product reviews. The 2024–2026 equivalent of spam.

Application Programming Interface. A contract that lets one program talk to another — endpoints, parameters, responses. Modern APIs are typically HTTP + JSON.

Accumulated cost of shortcuts taken in code. Like financial debt, it compounds — the longer you wait to fix it, the harder future changes become. Metaphor coined by Ward Cunningham (inventor of the wiki) in 1992. Every codebase has it; the discipline is naming it before refactoring.

The craft of writing inputs to LLMs to reliably produce the output you want. Includes role-setting, few-shot examples, chain-of-thought, and careful phrasing.

Excessive, sycophantic praise from an AI assistant — "What a brilliant question!" style. OpenAI famously rolled back a GPT-4o update in April 2025 for being too glazing.

A call to release code to production. Prioritizes getting in front of users over chasing perfection. "Ship it" is the engineering equivalent of ripping off a band-aid — enabled by feature flags, gradual rollouts, and a willingness to fix forward rather than delay.

Minimum Viable Product. The simplest version of a product that validates a core hypothesis with real users. The purpose is learning, not launching.

Retrieval-Augmented Generation. A pattern where an LLM pulls relevant documents from a vector database before answering, grounding output in real information.

"Looks Good To Me." Shorthand approval on a pull request or code review, signaling the reviewer has no blocking concerns. Can be left solo or stacked with emojis — "LGTM 🚀" for ship-it energy.

Synthetic media — usually video or audio — where AI convincingly impersonates a real person. Went from research curiosity (2017) to mainstream policy concern (2024+). A reminder to verify things your eyes tell you are true.

A hypothetical AI that surpasses the cognitive performance of the smartest humans across virtually every domain. Distinct from AGI (human-level) and intensely debated as either imminent or fantasy.

Debugging by explaining a problem aloud to an inanimate object — traditionally a rubber duck, nowadays often an AI chatbot. Articulating the issue often reveals the solution.

The maximum amount of text an LLM can "see" at once, measured in tokens. Longer windows let models process whole codebases or novels in a single request. Claude's 1M-token context unlocked whole-repo pair programming in 2025.

A representation an AI builds of how the world works — its physics, objects, causality — that lets it predict and plan. Current LLMs have shaky world models; video models like Sora and Veo show emergent ones.

The ability of an LLM to call external functions (search, code execution, databases) mid-conversation. The building block of agentic systems.

Running a trained AI model to produce output. Training teaches the model; inference is every time you use it. Inference is what costs money per token.

Continuing to train a foundation model on a smaller, specialized dataset so it specializes in your task. Increasingly replaced by RAG + prompt engineering for most use cases.

Describing AI systems that can plan, take actions, and use tools autonomously across multi-step tasks — not just answer one prompt. The defining tech buzzword of 2025. Every vendor calls themselves agentic; half deliver a single tool call in a loop.

Derogatory slang for an AI system, robot, or automated agent — especially when it fails spectacularly. Exploded on TikTok in 2025 as a catch-all insult for AI chatbots. Has a dark-humor register that "robot" never did — casting AI as clanking and clumsy rather than sleek.

A personal knowledge system — Notion, Obsidian, Roam, Tana — where you dump notes, highlights, ideas, and re-read them as a "second brain." Tiago Forte's 2022 book codified it. Half the people with a Second Brain admit they spend more time organizing than remembering.

Large Language Model. The AI systems (GPT, Claude, Gemini) trained on massive text corpora that power modern chatbots and coding assistants. Term entered mainstream after ChatGPT's launch in November 2022; now "the AI" in most everyday speech.

The lifecycle of online platforms: first they're good to users, then they squeeze users to please advertisers, then they squeeze advertisers to please shareholders, and finally they're useless. Coined by Cory Doctorow, January 2023 WIRED.

A state of hyper-focused, autonomous hustle where someone is fully locked in, making moves independently and executing on a plan without needing direction or validation. Originally borrowed from AI terminology but now used in hustle culture and productivity circles to describe peak self-driven performance.

Someone who talks too much, especially online. From 'yap' (to talk excessively). 2024-25 vintage. Affectionate when said about yourself; cutting when said about someone else.

One who, or a device that, mixes or merges things together.

, an Internet-based cartoon series.

Any piece of equipment made for a particular purpose, especially a mechanical or electrical one.

A device used to measure dimensions, especially for small or precise measurements.

A frame or housing containing electrical or mechanical equipment, such as on a computer.

(Internet) A website or page that acts as an entrance to other websites or pages on the Internet.

(slang, electronics, programming) of an electronic component, or software algorithm: generic, standard, vanilla, easy to find.

(informal) Equipment.

(slang, humorous) An unfashionable, nerdy individual who performs gangsta-style music.

(internet slang) An e-boy or e-girl.

(Internet slang, Reddit slang).

(Internet slang) A thirst trap.

(slang, informal, idiomatic, sometimes, Internet slang) Indicates that the speaker cannot answer their interrogator's question, because of lack of experience with or knowledge on the topic.

(internet slang) ChatGPT, a large language model based on the GPT architecture.

(internet slang, collective) The members of an anonymous imageboard website, especially of 4chan.

(Internet slang, text messaging) Phonetic abbreviation of see you.

(Internet slang) A hand puppet shaped like the head of a dragon or other animal, usually made from paper or cardboard, with an operational mouth.

(Internet slang, humorous, transitive) To ban.

(Internet slang) I know, right?.

(Internet slang) A participant in the Usenet newsgroup alt.writing.

(internet slang) A mock HTML tag incorporated into writing to express a state of mind.

(internet slang) White .

(Internet slang, countable) An instance of this style of video mashup.

(Internet slang, social media) A cryptic or ambiguous social media post that is on the subject of a person or thing without explicitly mentioning them.

(Internet slang, of an animal) To extend the tongue beyond the lips, seemingly for no reason, without opening the mouth fully.

(Internet slang, uncommon) A kill file.

(Internet slang, childish, endearing, humorous) . Originated due to the "o" key being adjacent to the "p" key on the modern QWERTY keyboard.

(internet slang) ; .

(Internet slang, often, _, sarcastic) Very intelligent; genius.

(South Africa) The tope .

(US, transitive) To disassemble (a system such as a computer or a car) in order to reuse the component parts.

(US, idiomatic) A natural skill for tinkering with electronics or computers.

(computer languages) An early programming language using mathematically derived symbols for many of its operations.

(computing) A software program that compresses code or data.

(UK, education) Confidence in the use and teaching of information technology.

(science fiction, slang, humorous) A pod or similar device containing a person in cryosleep.

(transitive) To remove, get rid of or erase, especially written or printed material, or data on a computer or other device.

(furry fandom, Internet slang) Opposing furries.

(fandom slang, internet slang) Heaven Official's Blessing, a Chinese manhua novel series.

(humorous, internet slang) A capybara.

(chiefly, Internet slang, in combination) As fast as I can ____.

(countable, endearing, internet slang) boy, boyo.

(chiefly, _, Internet slang) Representation of laughter.

(WMF, Internet slang) To delete revisions of a page from public view.

(humorous, Internet slang) The character Bridget from the video game series Guilty Gear.

(intransitive, internet slang) To engage in aura farming: to “farm” aura .

The width of the smallest frequency band within which the signal can fit.

To carry out a smurf attack against someone.