3 Basic intelligence
This chapter covers
- Prompt utilization in AI
- Understanding statefulness, context retention, and coherence
- Introduction to tokens
- Token limits and their effect
- Choosing between free and premium AI accounts
Before we get to the fun part and put AI into action, it’s important to understand a few basic concepts. We don’t want to get needlessly bogged down in technical jargon, so we will start at a high level. We’ll unpack key terms such as prompts, statefulness, and all-important tokens, exploring their significance and how they shape your interactions with AI models, specifically large language models (LLMs).
In chapters 1 and 2, we introduced tokens primarily in the context of pricing—you may recall seeing them mentioned when we discussed the costs of using AI services. Now it’s time to explore what tokens actually are and why they matter so much in AI systems. Although tokens can be one of the more challenging concepts to grasp in AI, understanding them will give you valuable insight into how these systems work. That said, don’t worry if you find the technical details challenging—you can use AI chatbots effectively without mastering all the intricacies of token mechanics.