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What knowledge does AI have access to?
What knowledge does AI have access to?

Understanding how knowledge cutoffs limit what information the AI knows about, and the data AI is trained on.

Sohan Choudhury avatar
Written by Sohan Choudhury
Updated over 9 months ago

Understanding AI’s Knowledge

Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT don't possess knowledge or awareness in the same way humans do. Instead, they generate responses based on patterns they've learned during training. The data they were trained on forms the basis of their "knowledge".

Training Data of AI

LLMs are trained on diverse datasets, typically including a broad cross-section of the internet, which may comprise books, websites, and other texts. However, these models do not have access to specific databases, confidential, proprietary or classified information, user-specific data, or real-time information (such as current news events after their training cut-off date).

AI’s Knowledge Cutoff

The concept of a knowledge cutoff is crucial in understanding what an AI knows. A knowledge cutoff is the point in time at which the AI's training data ends. For instance, if an AI model was last trained on data up to September 2021, then that is its knowledge cutoff. It won't be aware of events in the world that happened after September 2021.

AI and Real-time Information

It's important to note that AI does not have access to real-time, continually updated data. It does not know the time, the current weather, recent stock market performance, or current news events. It can't access or retrieve personal data unless it has been shared with the model during the conversation. It does not store personal conversations or remember information between different sessions.

Key Points to Remember

  • AI models like ChatGPT generate responses based on patterns in the data they were trained on.

  • These models don’t have access to real-time information or databases and can't access or remember personal data.

  • The knowledge cutoff is the point in time at which the AI's training data ends. The AI won't know about world events that occurred after this cutoff.

  • AI's "knowledge" is based on the training data it was provided and does not update or evolve without further training.

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