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Generative AI · beginner · concept 164 of 311 · Updated Nov 4, 2026

Foundation Models

A foundation model is a large model trained once on broad data and then adapted to many tasks, rather than built for one job. GPT, Claude, Gemini and Llama are examples. The economics follow from the idea: a few organizations can afford to train them, and everyone else builds on top, so choosing, evaluating and depending on a model becomes a business decision.

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Key terms

General-purpose modelPretrainingFine-tuningModel providerTransparency

Where you meet it in the real world

Chat assistants, enterprise copilots, coding tools, and most products described as built on AI