agent: A person or thing (it can be a chemical or even a form of energy) that plays some role in getting something done.

AI agent: A technology that uses a large language model, like a brain, and then links it to tools such as email or the internet so that it can perform actions or accomplish tasks on its own.

AI model: Short for artificial-intelligence model, it’s a particularly smart computer algorithm. Simple types of these models choose from a set of pre-selected to answer a user’s requests (perhaps to respond to a chat). More complex models may train on mountains of data to essentially figure out their own answers to potentially novel questions.

code: (in computing) To use special language to write or revise a program that makes a computer do something. (n.) Code also refers to each of the particular parts of that programming that instructs a computer’s operations.

hack: (in computing) To get unapproved — often illegal — access to a computer, usually to steal or alter data or files. Someone who does this is known as a hacker.

model: A simulation of a real-world event (usually using a computer) that has been developed to predict one or more likely outcomes. Or an individual that is meant to display how something would work in or look on others.

monitor: To test, sample or watch something, especially on a regular or ongoing basis.

prompt injection attack: (in artificial intelligence) A type of cyberattack against large language models (LLMs). Computer hackers disguise harmful inputs as legitimate “prompts.” In this way, they made persuade generative AI systems (GenAI) into sharing sensitive data, spreading misinformation or stealing data. The easiest type just tell a chatbot to ignore the rules its developers made for allowable behaviors. These prompt injection attacks are so worrisome because as of 2026, AI security researchers had not yet found a foolproof way to disarm them.

prompts: (in artificial intelligence) The requests that a user makes, telling an artificial-intelligence model specifically what it wants the bot to do. For instance, the prompt might be: Rewrite the Night Before Christmas poem as a rapper might perform it. Or: Create a video of a black cat wearing a beret driving a red MG Cyberster convertible down a street in London at night with Big Ben in the background showing the time as 11:15 p.m. The more specific the prompt, the more likely the AI creation will satisfy the user.

software: The mathematical instructions that direct a computer’s hardware, including its processor, to perform certain operations.

Science Talent Search: An annual competition created and run by Society for Science. Begun in 1942, this event brings 40 research-oriented high school seniors to Washington, D.C. each year to showcase their research to the public and to compete for awards. Since spring 2016, this competition has been sponsored by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.

Society for Science: A nonprofit organization created in 1921 and based in Washington, D.C. Since its founding, the Society has been promoting not only public engagement in scientific research but also the public understanding of science. It created and continues to run two renowned high-school science competitions: the Regeneron Science Talent Search (begun in 1942) and the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (created in 1950). A third, middle-school competition, launched in 2010, has since 2023 been known as the Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge. The Society also publishes award-winning journalism: in Science News (launched in 1922) and Science News Explores (created in 2003).

system: A network of parts that together work to achieve some function. For instance, the blood, vessels and heart are primary components of the human body’s circulatory system. Similarly, trains, platforms, tracks, roadway signals and overpasses are among the potential components of a nation’s railway system. System can even be applied to the processes or ideas that are part of some method or ordered set of procedures for getting a task done.