Glossary of Gen AI Terms

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🧠 Core AI Concepts

Term

Definition

Generative AI

A category of AI that creates new content (text, images, code) in response to user inputs

Large Language Model (LLM)

The underlying technology (like GPT-5, Claude, Gemini) trained on massive datasets to understand and generate human-like language

Hallucination

When an AI confidently generates incorrect or fabricated information

Stochastic Parrot

A term describing how AI assembles statistically probable sequences of words without true underlying understanding

Bias

Systematic prejudice in AI outputs resulting from the data used to train the model

🔧 Prompting & Context Engineering

Term

Definition

Prompt Engineering

The practice of refining inputs to get the most accurate and useful outputs

Context Engineering

Creating the specific environment or background instructions (like a “Knowledge Stack”) that allow the AI to deliver consistent results

Persona (Role-Playing)

Instructing the AI to adopt a specific role (e.g., “Act as an expert editor”) to influence tone and expertise

Zero-Shot Prompting

Asking for a task with no examples provided

Few-Shot Prompting

Providing a few examples to guide the AI’s style or format

Chain-of-Thought (CoT)

Asking the AI to “think step-by-step” to improve reasoning on complex tasks

Negative Prompting

Explicitly telling the AI what not to include (e.g., “—no jargon”)

📐 Technical Frameworks & Features

Term

Definition

CORE Framework

A structured prompting approach: Clarity, Objectives, Relevance, Examples

RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation)

Providing the AI with specific documents to reference, grounding answers in facts and reducing hallucinations

Custom Instructions

Persistent guidelines telling the AI who you are and how you want it to respond across all conversations

Knowledge Stack

A personalized system of tools, prompts, and reference files that work together for a specific workflow

Bot Stacking

Using multiple AI models in one conversation where each builds on the others’ outputs

🔬 Advanced Analysis Terms

Term

Definition

Lexical Density

A measure of content word concentration used to analyze how formal or conversational a text is

Voice Drift

The tendency for AI to gradually strip away a human’s unique writing style during revision

Thematic Clustering

How AI groups unstructured data into related categories based on mathematical similarity

🍌 BoodleBox-Specific Terms

Term

Definition

Nano Banana

Google’s Gemini Flash Image generator—fast, no watermarks, great for educational visuals

Knowledge Bank

Your personal AI library where uploaded files are stored and can be referenced

Star Docs

Documents you “star” to auto-attach to every new chat

Coach Mode

Built-in feature that teaches you to prompt better as you work

Memory Mode

AI remembers previous conversations for continuity

🚀 Quick Reference: Prompting Best Practices

1. Be SPECIFIC - "Write a 3-paragraph summary" beats "summarize this"

2. Assign a ROLE - "You are an expert curriculum designer..."

3. Provide CONTEXT - Include grade level, audience, purpose

4. Give EXAMPLES - Show the format or style you want

5. Set CONSTRAINTS - Word count, tone, what to avoid

6. Request STRUCTURE - "Use bullet points and headers"