1. What Are They?

Language models are the engines behind generative AI. They make it possible for AI to understand and produce human-like text. With them, AI can:

  • Summarize long reports

  • Write stories or lesson plans

  • Answer questions in plain English

  • Compare two texts

  • Detect tone or sentiment

2. How Do They Work?

Language models analyze natural language: the way we speak and write. They use patterns in massive datasets to predict the next word or phrase, allowing them to generate sentences, paragraphs, and full documents.

Think of it like predictive text on your phone, but on a much larger and smarter scale.

3. Large Language Models (LLMs)

Large Language Models (LLMs) are trained on huge collections of text from books, websites, and other sources. Because they’ve “read” so much, they can handle a wide variety of topics and conversations—everything from medicine to farming to music.

Examples include ChatGPT, Claude, and Microsoft Copilot.

4. Getting the Best Results

The quality of what you get depends not only on the AI model but also on how you ask. This process is called prompting.

Tips for writing good prompts:

  • Start with a clear goal: “Summarize this article for a 9th grader.”

  • Add context: “This is for a small business owner in Mississippi.”

  • Set expectations: “Write in bullet points under 100 words.”

  • Refine: If it’s not quite right, rephrase and try again.