NederlandsLanguage model
A language model is an AI model trained on vast amounts of text, so it can understand, write and translate text. The chatbots you know run on a language model.
A language model is an AI model that has learned from vast amounts of text. That lets it answer questions, write and summarise texts, translate and produce programming code. The well-known chatbots run on a language model. With a large language model, or LLM, both the model itself and the amount of text it was trained on are very large.
How does it work?
At its core, a language model learns to predict the next piece of text. It reads a passage, guesses what comes next and checks how far off it was. This happens billions of times. That is how it picks up patterns in language, but also in the knowledge contained in those texts. The text is chopped into small pieces, the tokens, and the model works with those pieces.
What the model has learned is stored in its parameters: billions of numbers. An answer usually emerges piece by piece, with each new piece depending on what is already there. Some models work differently. Mercury 3, from the American company Inception, first makes a rough version of the whole text and sharpens it in a few rounds. According to the company, that makes it four to eight times as fast as comparable models (link).
Why it matters
Language models are the engine behind almost all AI news. They form the basis of AI agents that carry out tasks on their own. They are also used in science, for example to design proteins or devise experiments.
Training such a model takes a lot of computing power, and a great deal of work goes into reducing that. Microsoft AI has finished the first training phase of its base model MAI-Base-2. According to the company, the model reaches the same level as a strong Chinese model with 4 to 12 times less computation (link). Researchers measure how good a language model is with fixed tests, the benchmarks.
Articles about Language model
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Chinese hacking group used AI agents against more than 200 organisations
A Chinese hacking group used AI agents to attack more than 200 organisations in at least 14 countries in eleven days, security company CrowdStrike reports. They broke into nine of them. CrowdStrike shares how to recognise these attacks.
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Mistral releases a giant AI model for anyone to use, strong in coding and security
France's Mistral is putting Mistral Large 4, nicknamed Le Chonk, online for free: a model with a trillion parameters that anyone can download and, with enough computers, run themselves. According to the company, it is the best open model for programming and for securing software.
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Block builds a speech model that learned to talk just by listening to conversations
Block, Jack Dorsey's company, has shown Dessa: an AI model that learned to talk without any text, only from recordings of conversations. It listens and speaks at the same time and runs on a powerful laptop. A small group of safety researchers is now the first to test it.
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Nvidia releases free speech model that transcribes recordings in 40 languages, translates them and recognises speakers
Nvidia has released an open speech model that transcribes, translates and shows who is speaking, all in one go. It uses only a small part of its computing power per step and runs on a single graphics card, without the cloud. For now, the performance figures come from Nvidia itself.
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Google presents Gemini 4 Carbon: better at finding and fixing security flaws
Two weeks after Gemini 4 Argon, Google DeepMind has released Carbon, which Google calls its strongest AI model so far. It excels at computer security and long tasks. Security experts get access first.
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New mid-sized OpenAI model operates the computer by itself, at half the price
OpenAI has released GPT-6.1 Terra, the second-smallest model in its range. It operates computer programs better than its predecessor, makes up answers far less often and costs less than a third per task. For now it is only available to paying users.
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AI finds hidden DNA error that standard software missed for years
An AI system from the American company Gamow Labs found the hereditary cause of a rare lung disease in a baby who died. Ordinary software had filtered the error out. A lab confirmed the finding, and the parents now know where they stand.
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Free tools take the brakes off Nvidia graphics cards: up to twice as much AI computing power
Free open-source tools remove a brake that Nvidia built into the firmware of its GeForce graphics cards. For AI calculations, some cards become up to twice as fast. In practice the gain is smaller, and the tools are still experimental.
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AI model designs experiments better than 24 experienced AI researchers
On a new test by P-Zero Research, Claude Opus 5.5 designs better AI experiments than the best of 24 human experts. The model needs less than half the computing time to do so and costs about one thirtieth as much.
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Chinese AI model Kimi K3.1 Pro ranks fourth in independent leaderboard
Kimi K3.1 Pro from the Chinese company Moonshot AI ranks fourth in the independent leaderboard of Artificial Analysis, ahead of the newest models from OpenAI and Google. It improved most in independent computer work. Moonshot plans to release the model by 4 November.
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Microsoft AI finds the right diagnosis more often than general practitioners in a simulation
According to a Microsoft study in the journal Science, the AI system MAI-DxO found the right diagnosis in 83 per cent of difficult cases, compared with 36 per cent for doctors. A test with real patients comes next.
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Hugging Face releases open AI model that lets researchers 'talk' to DNA
With Hugging Face's Carbon-X, researchers paste a piece of DNA into a chat and ask in plain language whether a change is likely to be harmful. The model is free and runs on a researcher's own computer. It is meant for research; the next step is testing in the lab.
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No need to take the AI's word for it: Claude delivers a mathematical proof for software
How do you know whether an AI's work is sound if nobody can read it all? Anthropic has Claude supply a mathematical proof that a small program checks step by step. This way Claude examined 123 widely used software building blocks and found hundreds of hidden bugs.
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Free coding model for the laptop was largely developed by AI itself
The AI company Recursive has released Flint, a free AI model that helps with programming and runs on an ordinary laptop. According to the company, its own research AI did a large part of the work: a first step towards AI that improves itself.
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AI model designs working proteins from a sentence in plain language
Researchers in China have built an AI model that designs proteins from a description in plain language. In four trials, the result actually did what was asked of it: give off light, break down plastic, convert alcohol and help capture CO2.
