AI glossary · Generative AI and LLMs
Knowledge cutoff
A knowledge cutoff is the approximate date after which an AI model has no information, because its training data stops there.
Also called training cutoff, cutoff date
In more detail
A model learns from data collected up to a certain point. Ask about something after that date and it may not know, or may guess. The cutoff is approximate: coverage of the last few months before it is often thin.
Chatbots that can search the web get around this by fetching current pages, a form of grounding.
Example
A model with a cutoff in early 2025 won’t know who won a match played later that year unless it searches online.
Related terms
Training dataTraining data is the set of examples, such as text, images or past records, that an AI model learns from. Its quality and range shape what the model can do.GroundingGrounding means tying an AI’s answer to specific, trusted sources, such as search results or your documents, instead of relying only on what it memorised.AI search engineAn AI search engine answers your question directly in a written summary built from web pages, instead of only showing a list of links.Pre-trainingPre-training is the first, biggest stage of training an AI model, where it learns general patterns from a huge dataset before being adapted for specific uses.
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