Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies have a significant impact on our day-to-day lives, with people having mixed views about their use. An emerging type of AI system is a ‘foundation model’, which is capable of a range of general tasks. Because foundation models can be built ‘on top of’ to develop different applications for many purposes, this makes them difficult – but important – to regulate. As policymakers begin to regulate AI, it is important for the public, policymakers, industry and the media to have a shared understanding of terminology, to enable effective regulation.
