K-Culture GlossaryㅁWhere everyone starts
Model
The term for a finished piece of AI software that has completed training — the 'model' in headlines like 'new model released.'
In plain words
A model is the term for a finished piece of AI software that has completed training. It's the end product of training on data — feed it a question, and it gives you an answer. That finished product is the 'model.'
The car analogy works well here. Just as Hyundai (the company) makes the Sonata (the model), OpenAI (the company) makes GPT-5 (the model). Versions go up like model years, and big and small models come out together like different trims of the same car. You can read 'new model released' articles the same way you'd read a new car launch announcement.
Model vs. Large Language Model: What's the Difference
The big box, One slot inside it
The two terms get mixed together carelessly in articles, making them seem like the same thing. Model is the broad term for any AI program that has finished training, while large language model is the subset that handles text. A model that draws images or one that generates voices is still a model, but not a large language model.
| Aspect | Model | LLM |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | Any AI program that has finished training | The subset of those that read and write text |
| Inclusion | Covers image, video, and voice models too | Is always just one branch of models |
| For example | Sora, Imagen, and AlphaFold are all models too | GPT, Claude, Gemini, Llama |
| Interchangeable? | Calling a language model a 'model' isn't wrong | Calling an image model a 'large language model' is wrong |
| Other things people mix it up with | Gets mixed up with product names. ChatGPT is a product, GPT is the model | Gets mixed up with size. Smaller versions are called small language models |
Rule of thumbIf it produces something other than text, call it only a model; it's a large language model only when it reads and writes text.
See also
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