Jargon Busting

Last updated on 2026-11-05 | Edit this page

Estimated time: 55 minutes

Overview

Questions

  • How do you and other workshop participants feel about AI?
  • What terms, phrases, and concepts are you aware of but wish you understood better?

Objectives

After this episode, learners will be able to:

  • Compare their perspective on artificial intelligence with other participants’ as they begin the workshop.
  • Explain terms, phrases, and concepts associated with artificial intelligence.
  • Differentiate between these terms, phrases, and concepts.
  • Recognise that AI is a label applied to a wide variety of tools, techniques, and technologies.
Discussion

Temperature Check

Gather learners’ anonymous responses to the following questions, using a polling tool or by collecting sticky notes on a whiteboard/wall.

  1. Overall, how do you feel about artificial intelligence and the ways that people are using it? (Choose all that apply.)
    • confused
    • excited
    • frustrated or angry
    • relaxed
    • uninterested
    • worried or scared
    • something else
  2. Which of these statements most closely matches your own view of artificial intelligence right now?
  • it is going to change everything.
  • it is an over-hyped phase that will soon pass.
  • its impact will vary greatly from case to case.
  • I don’t know
  1. On average, how frequently do you use a generative AI chatbot (e.g. ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Claude)?
  • many times per day
  • once per day
  • weekly
  • monthly
  • rarely
  • never
Discussion

Jargon Busting (30 minutes)

This exercise is an opportunity to gain a firmer grasp on some concepts related to (generative) artificial intelligence.

  1. Pair with a neighbor or form a small group. Decide who will take notes.
  2. Spend the first three to five minutes listing any terms, phrases, or ideas related to artificial intelligence that you’ve come across and perhaps feel you should understand better.
  3. Have the note-taker compile your list of terms, phrases, and ideas.
  4. Now in a larger group (or with everyone in the workshop) spend 10 to 15 minutes working together to try to explain what some of those terms, phrases, or ideas on your list mean.
  5. The instructor will collate terms and explanations on a whiteboard or Etherpad and facilitate a discussion about what we will cover today and where you can go for help on things we won’t cover.

A non-exhaustive list of terms that may be discussed in this activity:

  • agent
  • artificial intelligence
  • bias
  • chatbot
  • deep learning
  • hallucination
  • large language model
  • machine learning
  • model
  • neural network
  • prompt
  • prompt engineering
  • slop
  • training data
  • transformer
  • vibe coding
  • weights

The goals of this activity are:

  • To get the learner cohort engaged in discussion with the instructors and each other.
  • To build learners’ comfort in the learning environment.
  • To highlight that artificial intelligence is:
    1. an umbrella term for a large and diverse array of tools, techniques, and technologies.
    2. complicated and confusing for everybody.
  • To establish a baseline level of familiarity with some of the key terms that will be discussed throughout this workshop. Particularly important terms to discuss are:
    • artificial intelligence
    • prompt
    • model
    • training data

The variety of terms identified in the activity, and the quality of definitions/explanations provided by learners, can give you a lot of information about the depth and distribution of prior knowledge (and misconceptions) among your workshop cohort.

We have found that some understanding of the technology behind generative AI tools is helpful when thinking about the ways they could be used. Without dwelling on technical details, the rest of this lesson will explore the central technology of generative AI: the large language model. We will discuss what these models do, how they are produced, and what is happening when you ask one to generate something. With a strengthened understanding of how these tools work, you will be better equipped to judge when and how to use them in your work.

Key Points
  • “AI” is a term people use to refer to a very large variety of different things.
  • Different people have different perspectives on the technology, and these perspectives are sometimes associated with strong feelings.
  • It helps to share what you know and don’t know about.