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Model foundations

What a model actually is

Also called: neural network, weights, parameters

DEFINITION

A model is a large set of numbers (parameters) tuned during training so that, given some input, it predicts a useful output. It is not a database of answers and it does not look things up.

WHY IT MATTERS

If you think of a model as a search engine, its confident wrong answers are baffling. If you think of it as a pattern-predictor, they make sense — and you start checking the things that matter.

COMMONLY CONFUSED WITH

A search index or knowledge base. A model has no stored 'records' to retrieve; it reconstructs plausible text from patterns.