Reference Library
Glossary of Intelligence
Plain-language, sourced definitions for the 24 core terms behind brains, minds, and machines. Each term opens a dedicated page with a topical visual, deeper explanation, and further reading.
Showing 24 of 24 terms
AI Safety
AI Alignment
The technical problem of ensuring AI systems pursue goals and values consistent with human intent.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)
AI systems capable of matching or exceeding human cognitive performance across the full breadth of intellectual tasks.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Superintelligence (ASI)
Hypothetical AI that vastly exceeds the best human minds in essentially every domain of interest.
Cognition
Bayesian Brain
The hypothesis that the brain represents uncertainty and updates beliefs in approximately Bayesian fashion.
Neurotechnology
Brain–Computer Interface (BCI)
A direct communication channel between neural activity and an external device.
Neuroscience
Cerebral Cortex
Outer layer of the brain responsible for higher cognitive functions.
Neuroscience
Connectome
The complete map of neural connections in a brain or nervous system.
Philosophy of Mind
Consciousness
The state of being aware of and able to report on one's own experiences, thoughts, and surroundings.
Neuroscience
Dopamine
A neurotransmitter central to motivation, reward learning, and motor control.
Cognition
Embodiment
The thesis that cognition is shaped by the body's sensors, actuators, and physical interaction with the world.
Artificial Intelligence
Emergent Abilities
Capabilities that appear abruptly in large models but are absent in smaller ones.
Neuroscience
Hippocampus
A seahorse-shaped structure crucial for forming new episodic memories and spatial navigation.
Artificial Intelligence
Large Language Model (LLM)
A neural network trained on massive text corpora to predict and generate human-like language.
AI Safety
Mechanistic Interpretability
Research that reverse-engineers the internal computations of neural networks into human-understandable concepts.
Neuroscience
Myelin
A fatty insulating sheath around axons that dramatically speeds neural signal conduction.
Neuroscience
Neuron
Electrically excitable cell that processes and transmits information via electrochemical signals.
Neuroscience
Neuroplasticity
The molecular and structural changes that let neural circuits adapt with experience.
Neuroscience
Plasticity
The brain's capacity to reorganize itself by forming new connections throughout life.
Cognition
Predictive Coding
A theory that the brain continuously generates predictions about sensory input and learns from prediction errors.
Philosophy of Mind
Qualia
The subjective, experiential qualities of conscious states — what something is like to experience.
AI Safety
RLHF
Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback — fine-tuning models against learned preferences from human raters.
Neuroscience
Synapse
Junction between two neurons where signals are passed chemically or electrically.
Artificial Intelligence
Transformer
A neural-network architecture built on self-attention; the foundation of modern LLMs.
Cognition
Working Memory
Short-term system for holding and manipulating information used in reasoning and decision-making.