AI Glossary

Foundation model

A large model trained on broad data that can be adapted to many different tasks, like the models behind chat assistants. Researchers at Stanford introduced the term in a 2021 report.

See also

  • Large language model

    A model with a very large number of parameters, trained on very large amounts of text to predict the next token, which lets it write, summarize and answer questions.

  • Generative AI

    AI that produces new content, such as text, images, audio, video or code, modeled on the data it learned from and usually in response to a prompt.

  • Multimodal

    Able to take in or produce more than one kind of data, such as text, images, audio and video.

  • Open weights

    A model whose trained parameters are published for anyone to download and run.

Source: Bommasani et al., On the Opportunities and Risks of Foundation Models (2021) (opens in a new tab)

Cite this term.

CC BY 4.0, attribution required.

This term

Orbyt Labs, Foundation model (AI Glossary), Oct 18, 2026. https://www.orbytlabs.ai/orbyt-collective/glossary/foundation-model

The dataset (JSON)

Orbyt Labs Glossaries (Oct 19, 2026), https://www.orbytlabs.ai/glossary#dataset

Last updated .