API key: A unique identifier — or password — that internet services or apps exchange in the background to verify a user’s identity or to allow access to content and services. API stands for application programming interface. It’s a set of rules that allow softwarcations to communicate, which includes exchanging data or changing features and tasks. APIs let people share only those data they choose to, at the same time hiding essential details of their computer’s working system.
AI agent: A technology that uses a large language model, like a brain, and then links it to tools such as email or the internet so that it can perform actions or accomplish tasks on its own.
ape: A group of rather large primates, all of which lack a tail. They include gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans, gibbons and humans. Most people tend to group humans into their own separate subcategory owing to a number of special traits. These include a larger brain, greater mental abilities (including being able to talk) and their ability to walk on two legs.
bot: (short for web robot) A computer program designed to appear that its actions come from some human. The goal is to have it interact with people or perform automated tasks such as finding and sharing online information through social-media accounts.
browser: (in computing) The software program or application that someone uses to find and retrieve information from Web pages on the internet.
bug: (in computing) Slang term for a glitch in computer code, the instructions that direct the operations of a computer.
chatbot: A computer program created to seemingly converse with human users. Modern ones (such as Siri, Alexa, Ocelot and Sprinklr) can retrieve information over the internet about news events or classroom topics. Many even work as digital assistants to answer questions about purchases, products or scheduling on behalf of stores, pharmacies or banks.
cybersecurity: A type of investigative field, sometime in law enforcement, that works to scout threats to computer systems and/or ways to thwart attacks.
entrepreneur: Someone who takes the initiative to create a business or other venture. It can be a risky thing to do, but these people gamble that the effort is worth the potential gain — which may come in money, satisfaction or creating/achieving something novel or important.
extract: (v.) To separate one chemical (or component of something) from a complex mix. (noun) A substance, often in concentrated form, that has been removed from some source material. Extracts are often taken from plants (such as spearmint or lavender), flowers and buds (such as roses and cloves), fruit (such as lemons and oranges) or seeds and nuts (such as almonds and pistachios). Such extracts, sometimes used in cooking, often have very strong scents or flavors.
HTML: Short for Hypertext Markup Language. It’s the standardized language for setting the structure of most webpages.
HTML tag: A bit of the HTML computer language enclosed in a set of angle brackets (< >) to indicate how a webpage should be structured.
internet: An electronic communications network. It allows computers anywhere in the world to link into other networks to find information, download files and share data (including pictures).
jailbreak: (in artificial intelligence) To bypass the safety and security settings of a chatbot or AI agent in order to get it to do things it’ s not supposed to do.
large language model: (in computing) Language models are a type of machine learning. They attempt to predict upcoming words (in text or speech) and then present those predictions using words that almost anyone should understand. The models learn to do this by reviewing large quantities of text or speech. As their name would imply, large language models train using enormous troves of data. They organize and make sense of those data using “neural nets” — a scheme patterned a bit off of the pathways of nerves in the human brain (and for whose development the 2024 Nobel Prize in physics was awarded). Large language models don’t just learn words, but also phrases made of many words. They can even learn from the context in which a new phrase and idea is worded (meaning the words that accompany those phrases or in which those phrases have been embedded).
model: A simulation of a real-world event (usually using a computer) that has been developed to predict one or more likely outcomes. Or an individual that is meant to display how something would work in or look on others.
molt: (v.) To cast or shed skin, exoskeleton or feathers, which will be replaced with new. (n.) The act of molting, or the thing that is dropped during molting.
network: A group of interconnected people or things. (v.) The act of connecting with other people who work in a given area or do similar thing (such as artists, business leaders or medical-support groups), often by going to gatherings where such people would be expected, and then chatting them up. (n. networking)
prompt injection attack: (in artificial intelligence) A type of cyberattack against large language models (LLMs). Computer hackers disguise harmful inputs as legitimate “prompts.” In this way, they made persuade generative AI systems (GenAI) into sharing sensitive data, spreading misinformation or stealing data. The easiest type just tell a chatbot to ignore the rules its developers made for allowable behaviors. These prompt injection attacks are so worrisome because as of 2026, AI security researchers had not yet found a foolproof way to disarm them.
psychological: (adj.) Related to how the human mind works, especially in relation to guiding actions and behavior.
risk: The chance or mathematical likelihood that some bad thing might happen. For instance, exposure to radiation poses a risk of cancer. Or the hazard — or peril — itself. (For instance: Among cancer risks that the people faced were radiation and drinking water tainted with arsenic.)
robot: A machine that can sense its environment, process information and respond with specific actions. Some robots can act without any human input, while others are guided by a human.
rogue: An animal that wanders alone, outside its herd or the community into which it was born. Or anything, even a planet or galaxy, that unexpectedly travels alone and far from where it would be expected.
social media: Digital media that allow people to connect with each other (often anonymously) and to share information. Examples include Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and WhatsApp.
social network: Communities of people (or animals) that are interrelated owing to the way they relate to each other. In humans, this can involve sharing details of their life and interests on Twitter or Facebook, or perhaps belonging to the same sports team, religious group or school.
society: An integrated group of people or animals that generally cooperate and support one another for the greater good of them all.
sophisticated: A term for something that is advanced, complex and/or elegant.
tag: (in conservation science) To attach some rugged band or package of instruments onto an animal. Sometimes the tag is used to give each individual a unique identification number. Once attached to the leg, ear or other part of the body of a critter, it can effectively become the animal’s “name.” Or something that serves as an i
technology: The application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, or the devices, processes and systems that result from those efforts.