Knowledge Cutoff
Knowledge Cutoff
A rough guide to how up to date an AI's training knowledge is.
In Simple Terms
A knowledge cutoff is a rough guide to how up to date an AI's training knowledge is. An AI answers based on information up to around that point in time, so it generally can't answer questions about new events that happened afterward. You'll run into it when you ask about the latest news and the AI tells you, right in its answer, how far its own knowledge goes.
Behind the Name
The name combines "knowledge" with "cutoff", the point where something stops. You'll also see the fuller phrase "knowledge cutoff date". It marks the boundary of how far the information in an AI's knowledge reaches.
Take a Closer Look!
A knowledge cutoff is a rough guide to how up to date an AI's training knowledge is.
It's a reference date that shows the point in time up to which the information an AI model has stored as knowledge extends.
AI gets smart by reading huge amounts of data collected in advance, but that training takes a great deal of time and incurs substantial computational costs.
Once a model finishes training, it doesn't automatically pick up new knowledge every day the way a person does, so a reference point in time is set to mark the range of its knowledge.
Incidents that happen after that date, and buzzwords that are newly coined, are things the AI doesn't hold as accurate knowledge.
If you ask an AI about something that happened after its cutoff, it may honestly say it doesn't know, or it may make a guess and give an answer that doesn't match the facts.
That's why, when you use AI, it's important to keep in mind whether what you're asking about is newer than that AI's knowledge cutoff.
To make up for this limitation, a setup where the AI connects to an external search engine and looks up the latest information on the spot before answering is also widely used.