70-20-10 Learning Model
A learning approach where about 70 percent comes from hands-on practice, 20 percent from others, and 10 percent from formal teaching. The backbone of how the Bootcamp runs.
ISLANDBeginner’s compass
AI words,
made human.
Find the plain-language meaning of every important Bootcamp term, then read it beside English in any of 18 translated languages.
110 terms19 languages9 modules
Start with any word
Your multilingual trail guide
New to AI? Type the word you heard, choose the language you know best, or explore one module at a time.
Advanced Data Analysis
A ChatGPT feature that writes and runs code to analyse data, files and spreadsheets for you.
AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation)
Optimising your content so AI assistants recommend and quote your business in their answers. The AI-era evolution of SEO.
Agentic Workflow
A process where one or more AI agents complete a chain of tasks with limited human input.
AI Agent
An AI that can plan and carry out multi-step tasks on your behalf, using tools and making decisions along the way.
AI Literacy
The practical ability to understand, use and get real value from AI tools in everyday work and life.
API (Application Programming Interface)
A way for software tools to talk to each other and share data automatically.
Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)
A hypothetical future AI that could match or exceed human ability across virtually any task.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Computer systems that perform tasks normally needing human intelligence, such as understanding language, recognising images or making decisions.
Aspect Ratio
The width-to-height shape of an image, such as 16:9 or 1:1.
Audio Overview (NotebookLM)
A NotebookLM feature that turns your documents into a podcast-style audio conversation.
Automation
Setting up tasks to run automatically with little or no manual effort.
Avatar (Digital Human)
A realistic AI-generated presenter that can speak your script on camera, for example from HeyGen.
B-roll
Supplementary footage cut in to support the main video, increasingly AI-generated.
Bias
Unfair or skewed patterns in AI output that come from imbalances in its training data.
Canva
A popular design tool with built-in AI for images, text and layouts.
Canvas
A ChatGPT workspace for writing and editing longer documents or code side by side with the AI.
Capstone Project
The final hands-on project where you apply everything you have learned to a real use case.
Chain-of-thought
Prompting an AI to reason step by step, which improves accuracy on harder problems.
Chatbot
A program you interact with in conversation, increasingly powered by generative AI.
ChatGPT
OpenAI's popular AI chat assistant, one of the main tools taught in the Bootcamp.
Claude
Anthropic's AI assistant, known for strong writing, reasoning and handling long documents.
Computer Vision
AI that interprets and understands images and video, recognising objects, faces, text and scenes.
Context Window
How much text an AI can hold in mind at once. Its short-term memory for a conversation or document.
Copilot
Microsoft's AI assistant, built into Windows and Microsoft 365.
Custom GPT
A personalised version of ChatGPT that you set up with your own instructions, knowledge and purpose. No coding needed.
Custom Instructions
Saved preferences that tell ChatGPT how to respond to you every time.
DALL-E
OpenAI's image generator, built into ChatGPT.
Data Privacy
Protecting personal and sensitive information when using AI tools.
Deep Learning
A powerful form of machine learning using many-layered neural networks, behind most of today's AI breakthroughs.
Deepfake
A synthetic video or image that convincingly replaces someone's face or voice. Powerful but easily misused.
DeepSeek
An open, cost-efficient AI model family developed in China.
Deployment (Hosting)
Publishing your app or website so that others can access it online.
Diffusion Model
The main technology behind AI image generation, which turns random noise into a clear image step by step.
DNS / Domain
The web's address system. A domain is your website's name, such as learn-ai.co.za.
ElevenLabs
A leading AI voice tool for realistic text-to-speech and voice cloning.
Embeddings / Vector Database
A way of storing information by meaning so AI can find the most relevant pieces. The memory behind many AI apps.
Few-shot Prompting
Giving an AI a few examples inside your prompt so it copies the pattern you want.
Fine-tuning
Further training a model on specialised data so it performs better for a specific purpose.
Foundation Model
A large, general-purpose AI model trained on broad data that can be adapted to many different tasks.
Function Calling (Tool Use)
When an AI decides to use an external tool or action, like searching the web or sending an email, to complete a task.
Gemini
Google's AI assistant, built into Google's products.
Generative AI
AI that creates new content such as text, images, audio, video or code, rather than only analysing or sorting existing data.
GitHub
A platform for storing, sharing and collaborating on code and projects.
GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer)
The family of models behind ChatGPT. The name stands for generative, pre-trained transformer.
GPT Store
OpenAI's marketplace where Custom GPTs are shared and discovered.
Guardrails
Rules and limits that keep an AI system's behaviour safe, on-topic and within policy.
Hallucination
When an AI confidently produces information that is wrong or made up. Always worth checking important facts.
Human-in-the-loop
Keeping a person involved to guide, check and approve what the AI produces, rather than letting it run unsupervised.
Image-to-Image
Generating a new image using an existing image as a starting reference.
Image-to-Video
Turning a still image into a moving video clip.
Inpainting
Editing part of an image by regenerating a selected area.
Intelligent Assistant (IA)
Learn AI's reframe of 'AI': treat these tools as a capable assistant you delegate work to, rather than a mysterious artificial intelligence.
Knowledge Cutoff
The date after which a model has no built-in knowledge of world events.
Knowledge Files
Documents you upload to a Custom GPT so it can answer from your own material.
Large Language Model (LLM)
An AI model trained on huge amounts of text so it can understand and generate human-like language. The engine behind ChatGPT, Claude and others.
Lip Sync
Matching a character's mouth movements to a soundtrack or voice.
Lovable
A no-code AI tool that builds working websites and apps from a plain-language description.
Machine Learning (ML)
A type of AI where systems learn patterns from data and improve with experience, instead of being programmed with fixed rules.
Make
A visual no-code automation platform for building multi-step workflows.
Memory
A feature where ChatGPT remembers useful details about you across conversations.
Midjourney
A leading text-to-image tool known for its artistic quality.
Model
The trained 'brain' behind an AI tool: the underlying system that has learned from data and produces the output.
Model Context Protocol (MCP)
An open standard that lets AI assistants securely connect to apps, data and tools.
Multimodal AI
AI that can work across several types of input and output at once, such as text, images, audio and video.
MVP (Minimum Viable Product)
The simplest working version of an idea that you can build to test whether it delivers value.
Narrow AI
AI built to do one specific task well, like the tools we use today, as opposed to general intelligence.
Negative Prompt
Telling an image AI what to leave out of the picture.
Neural Network
A computing structure loosely inspired by the human brain, made of connected nodes, that underpins most modern AI.
No-code / Low-code
Building apps and automations with visual tools and little or no programming.
OCR (Optical Character Recognition)
Technology that reads text out of images or scanned documents.
Open-weight Model
A model whose underlying weights are freely available to download and run, unlike closed commercial models.
Orchestration
Coordinating multiple AI tools, steps or agents to work together on a bigger task.
Parameters
The internal settings a model adjusts as it learns. More parameters usually means a larger, more capable model.
POPIA (Protection of Personal Information Act)
South Africa's data-protection law governing how personal information may be collected and used. Important when using AI with real data.
Prompt
The instruction, question or input you give an AI tool to tell it what you want.
Prompt Engineering
The skill of writing clear, well-structured prompts to get better, more reliable results from AI.
Proof of Concept (POC)
A small trial that shows an idea can actually work before you invest fully.
Reasoning Model
A newer type of model that thinks for longer before answering, for tougher problems.
Responsible AI
Using AI in a way that is ethical, fair, transparent and safe.
Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)
A technique where an AI looks up relevant information from a document set before answering, improving accuracy.
RLHF (Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback)
A training method where human ratings teach a model to give more helpful, safer answers.
ROI (Return on Investment)
The value or payoff you get back relative to the time or money you put in.
Runway
A popular AI video creation and editing platform.
Seed
A number that controls the random starting point of an image, letting you reproduce or vary results.
Sora
OpenAI's text-to-video generation model.
Speech-to-Text (STT)
Turning spoken audio into written text. Also called transcription.
Stable Diffusion
A popular open image-generation model that you can run yourself.
Suno
An AI tool that creates full songs, with music and vocals, from a text description.
Synthetic Voice
An artificial voice generated by AI.
System Prompt
A behind-the-scenes instruction that sets an AI's role, tone and rules for a whole conversation.
Temperature
A setting that controls how creative or random an AI's output is. Lower is more focused, higher is more varied.
Text-to-Image
Creating a picture from a written description.
Text-to-Speech (TTS)
Turning written text into natural-sounding spoken audio.
Text-to-Video
Creating a video clip from a written description.
Token
The small chunks of text, roughly part of a word, that a language model reads and generates. Usage and limits are counted in tokens.
Training Data
The large collection of text, images or other examples that an AI model learns from.
Transformer
The breakthrough AI architecture, the 'T' in GPT, that powers modern language models.
Upscaling
Increasing an image's resolution and detail using AI.
Use Case
A specific, real-world task or problem that you apply an AI tool to.
Veo
Google's advanced text-to-video model.
Vibe Coding
Creating software by describing what you want in natural language and letting AI write the code.
Voice Cloning
Creating a synthetic copy of a specific person's voice from a sample of their speech.
Voice Mode
Talking to an AI assistant out loud and hearing it reply in real time.
Watermarking
Hidden or visible marks that flag content as AI-generated.
Webhook
An automatic message one app sends another when something happens, often used to trigger automations.
Whisper
OpenAI's speech-to-text model, widely used for transcription.
Workflow Automation
Chaining tasks and tools together so a whole process runs automatically.
Zapier
A no-code automation tool that connects apps so actions happen automatically.
Zero-shot Prompting
Asking an AI to do a task with no examples, relying on its existing knowledge.