45 of the Digital Society glossary’s terms, each with the part of the syllabus where you first meet it.
A person's position in relation to disability, including physical, sensory, intellectual, cognitive and mental health conditions, and how far the surrounding environment, including digital systems, enables or restricts their participation.
An evaluation criterion that asks whether the people and communities affected by an intervention see it as acceptable, including whether it is accountable and transparent to them.
The ability of people to obtain the health services and medicines they need, when they need them, without barriers of distance, cost, discrimination or poor quality.
The degree to which products, services, environments and digital content can be used by people with the widest possible range of abilities, including people with visual, hearing, motor and cognitive impairments.
Action taken by individuals or groups to bring about political or social change, such as campaigning, protesting, organising boycotts or raising awareness.
A component that turns a control signal into physical action, such as a motor that turns a wheel, a hydraulic cylinder that lifts an arm or a speaker that produces sound.
Adjusting to new conditions in order to survive or keep working, usually by a person, organisation or community responding to a change it did not start.
An approach in which software uses data about a learner's responses to adjust the content, difficulty and pace of what it presents next.
Making a three-dimensional object by building it up layer by layer from a digital design file, commonly called 3D printing.
A population in which the share of older people, usually those aged 65 and over, is rising because of longer life expectancy and lower birth rates.
The capacity of individuals or groups to act independently and make their own choices, even within structures that limit what they can do.
The laws, regulations, standards, policies and institutions that guide and limit how AI systems are developed, deployed and used, at company, national and international levels.
An output from a generative AI system that is presented as fact but is false, invented or not supported by its sources, such as a made-up citation or legal case.
A period in which interest, funding and research in AI fall sharply after the technology fails to meet inflated expectations, as happened in about 1974 to 1980 and 1987 to the early 1990s.
A finite, ordered set of clear instructions that takes some input and produces an output, in order to solve a specific problem or perform a specific task.
The obligation of organisations that design or use algorithms to take responsibility for their outcomes, explain how decisions were reached, allow people to challenge them and correct any harm caused.
Systematic and repeatable errors in an algorithm's outputs that create unfair outcomes for particular people or groups, arising from its data, its design or the way it is used.
A measure of the resources, mainly the number of steps (time) and the amount of memory, that an algorithm uses to produce its output, especially as the amount of input data grows.
The aim that an algorithm's outcomes treat people and groups justly; there are several competing definitions, such as equal error rates or equal accuracy, which often cannot all be met at once.
The use of algorithms and data to assign, monitor, evaluate and discipline workers, for example by allocating jobs, setting pay per task and deactivating accounts with low ratings.
Openness about the fact that an algorithm is used, what data it uses, how it works and how its outputs are applied, so that affected people and independent reviewers can understand and scrutinise it.
A way of representing data with continuous physical quantities or signals that can take any value within a range, such as the groove of a vinyl record or the grains of photographic film.
The state of acting or communicating without one's identity being known or traceable by others.
Processing a dataset to remove or alter personally identifiable information so that individuals can no longer be identified, directly or indirectly, by any reasonably likely means.
The attribution of human characteristics, emotions or intentions to non-human things, such as animals, objects, robots or software.
Laws that protect competition in markets by banning cartels, blocking harmful mergers and stopping dominant companies from abusing their position. In the EU it is usually called competition law.
Programs that let users carry out specific tasks, such as writing documents, editing photos, browsing the web or playing games; on mobile devices these are usually called apps.
The part of the CPU that performs calculations, such as addition and comparison, and logical decisions.
The first large packet-switched computer network, funded by the US Department of Defense and first operating in 1969, which developed many of the technologies on which the internet is built.
A proposed form of AI that would match or exceed human ability across almost any intellectual task, transferring knowledge between areas and reasoning about new situations. It does not exist today.
The ability of a digital system to perform tasks that normally need human intelligence, such as recognising patterns, understanding language, making decisions or creating content, often by learning from data rather than following only fixed rules.
A machine learning model made of layers of connected nodes, in which each connection has a weight that is adjusted during training so that the network learns to map inputs to the correct outputs.
The creation of new artistic forms, techniques, styles or ideas, often by using new technologies or by combining existing forms in new ways.
Any device, software or system that maintains or improves the functioning and independence of a person with a disability, such as wheelchairs, hearing aids, screen readers, communication apps and prosthetics.
An algorithm that finds relationships between items, such as products often bought together or videos watched by similar users; the basis of many recommendation systems.
An economic system in which human attention is treated as a scarce resource that platforms compete to capture and sell, usually to advertisers, so that time and engagement become the main measures of success.
Technology that adds digital objects or information on top of a live view of the real world, usually through a smartphone camera or smart glasses.
The process of checking that a user or device really is who or what it claims to be, using evidence such as a password, a code on a phone or a fingerprint.
The use of machines, software or robots to carry out tasks that people previously did, with little or no human involvement.
The tendency to over-rely on the output of an automated system, accepting its decisions or recommendations even when other information suggests they are wrong.
A self-operating machine that performs a fixed sequence of actions, usually driven by springs, weights, water or cams, often built to imitate a person or animal.
A digital system that can carry out tasks and make decisions in response to its environment without continuous human direction, whether or not it has a physical body that moves.
A vehicle that uses sensors, software and actuators to perceive its surroundings and drive itself, with the human role ranging from close supervision to none depending on its level of automation.
The degree to which a system can sense, decide and act on its own, without real-time human direction, within a given environment and set of tasks.
A graphical representation of a user in a digital environment, such as a character in a game, a figure in a chat app or a 3D body in virtual reality.