AI Made Crystal Clear · chapter 2: What AI Actually Is: AI, ML, GenAI, and LLMs
The model is raw text-generating capability
2026-09-01
The product wraps it in an interface, guardrails, memory features, and a pricing plan. When you evaluate a tool, you are evaluating the whole car, not just the engine.
Below: the paragraph from the book that builds this idea, then the diagram itself (Figure 2.2), and a recap. About a minute of reading.
This is why the same "engine" can show up in many "cars." A software maker can rent a model from OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google and build its own product around it, which is precisely what thousands of AI startups do. It is also why a product can improve overnight: the company swapped in a newer engine while you slept, and the seats and dashboard stayed the same. Figure 2.2 puts the two side by side.
Recap
- The idea: The product wraps it in an interface, guardrails, memory features, and a pricing plan.
- The picture: Figure 2.2, from chapter 2 ("What AI Actually Is: AI, ML, GenAI, and LLMs") of AI Made Crystal Clear.
- Go deeper: the chapter builds this step by step, with recipes and sources at the end.
This diagram is one of many in AI Made Crystal Clear.
Every chapter opens with the gist, draws the hard ideas, and ends with recipes and sources.
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