Chapter 0.1. What AI Actually Is
In this section
- Chapter 0.1. What AI Actually IsWhat a model works from when it answers you: what it learned in training and the context window built for each reply, and why that explains memory, sure-sounding guesses, tokens and tools.
- 0.1.1 The machineWhat an AI chat does when you press send, the only two things it works from, and why nothing inside it checks an answer.
- 0.1.2 Why it behaves the way it doesTokens, the context window, a sure style and uneven skill: four ideas that explain miscounted words, chats that forget, and sure wrong answers.
- 0.1.3 From predictor to workerHow the same model acts in steps through tools and a loop, and what writing out its working first does and does not change.
- 0.1.4 How both AI vendors offer their modelsThe model families Anthropic and OpenAI offer, each one's setting for working before an answer, and the knowledge cutoffs each states, as checked on 16 October 2026, with Anthropic's plan details checked again on 31 October 2026.
- Lab 0.1: Where the answer comes fromChapter 0.1's lab: seven short messages that show where an AI's answer comes from, training, the chat in front of it, or a tool.
- Check yourselfRecall and practice for the whole chapter: the flashcards, and a final quiz round from all four concepts.