Inference
Running a trained model on an input to produce an output.
What Inference does not show
It uses learned parameters and supplied context; it does not update the model unless a separate learning process occurs.
Where Inference comes up on this site
- Google's /goto redirect: why referrer data can't show itText labelled “our reading” is inference, not a sourced claim.
- Do AI agents stop before acting on a lookalike? We tested 4Models: Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite through the Gemini API; gpt-oss-120b, Llama 3.3 70B Instruct and Mistral Small 3.1 24B through a hosted inference API.
- 18 DMARC reports, 7 domains: every failure was a spooferThe reports do not say why those two; the likeliest reason is that a name a recipient might recognise is worth imitating, but that is an inference, not something the reports show.
Terms this definition uses
Definitions that name Inference
AEO · log file analysis · Context caching
Related terms in Models and generation
How a model produces text, what its training and decoding controls change, and what none of them can prove about a source.
Autoregressive model · Transformer · Attention · Self-attention · Parameter · Pretraining · Fine-tuning · Supervised fine-tuning · Instruction tuning · RLHF · Preference optimization · Knowledge distillation · Quantization · Mixture of experts · Multimodal model · Vision-language model · Small language model · Tokenizer · Temperature · Top-p sampling · Deterministic decoding · System prompt · Developer message · Tool call · Function calling · Structured output · Constrained decoding · Chain of thought · Reasoning trace · Context caching · Context compaction · Model routing · Model drift · Model version
Questions about Inference
What is Inference?
Running a trained model on an input to produce an output.
What does Inference not show or guarantee?
It uses learned parameters and supplied context; it does not update the model unless a separate learning process occurs.
Which area of the glossary does Inference belong to?
Models and generation: How a model produces text, what its training and decoding controls change, and what none of them can prove about a source.
← Parameter · Pretraining →
See it in the full glossary · 772 terms across 19 areas.
Free browser extension
See this on any site you visit, in one click.
CrawlCheck for Chrome grades every site you visit A–F and shows, from your own browser, what search engines and AI assistants are actually served. Free, no account.