A large language model, or LLM, is the technology behind most AI chatbots, including ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude.

It’s built by processing enormous amounts of text, such as books, websites, and articles, to learn the patterns in how language works.

That learning is what allows it to predict and produce text that reads naturally, which is where the “language model” part of the name comes from.

When people talk about AI chatbots in the news, they’re usually talking about an LLM specifically. You don’t need to use the term yourself, but it helps to recognise it when you see it.