Foundation model
A foundation model is a large, general model trained on broad data that many other products are built on, by prompting or fine-tuning it for specific jobs. Most chatbots, writing tools and coding assistants sit on a handful of foundation models.
In one line, for a 12-year-old
A foundation model is the big base that lots of different AI apps are built on top of, like the foundation of many houses.
An example
A tax-help app, a résumé writer and a customer-service bot might all run on the same foundation model from one company.
Why it matters to people
When many services depend on a few models, one flaw or policy change spreads everywhere. The EU AI Act sets specific duties for providers of these general-purpose models.