Foundation Model

A large AI model trained on broad, diverse data that can be adapted to a wide range of downstream tasks. Foundation models, such as large language models and multimodal models, serve as a starting point that other applications are built on top of, typically through fine-tuning or prompt engineering. The term was coined by Stanford researchers in 2021 and captures both the centrality and the systemic risks these models introduce.
See also: fine-tuning, large language model, transfer learning.