About

What this is

Artifipedia explains the concepts behind artificial intelligence — 56 of them so far, each written at five depths so you can read as far as you need and stop. Curious, Practical, Hands-on, Technical, Frontier. Same idea, five levels of detail, one dial.

The bet is simple: most AI explanations are written either for people who already understand them or for people who never will. There's a lot of room in between.

Why it exists

AI vocabulary moved from research papers into everyday conversation faster than the explanations did. People are asked to have opinions about embeddings, agents, and alignment without ever being told what those words mean — and the material that does exist is usually either a marketing page or a paper.

There's also a narrower reason. Most reference material tells you what something is and stops. It won't tell you when not to use it, what to use instead, or what people consistently get wrong. Those are the parts that actually help, and they're the parts most sites leave out because they require taking a position. Every concept here has them.

How it's written

Every entry follows the same shape: a plain-English opening, four progressively deeper explanations, an at-a-glance summary, flashcards, and three sections that most references skip — when not to use it, what to reach for instead, and where people go wrong.

Every entry also carries sources. Real ones, by title and author, listed so you can check the claims rather than take them on trust. Where the field disagrees, the entry says so and cites both sides. The attention entry cites Attention is not Explanation and its rebuttal. The AGI entry says plainly that the debate can't be settled because it's definitional, not factual.

Entries are opinionated where the evidence supports an opinion, and honest about uncertainty where it doesn't. That's a deliberate choice. A reference that refuses to say "don't do this" isn't neutral — it's just less useful.

What it won't do

No model rankings. Leaderboards are stale within weeks and there are dozens of them. This site covers ideas, which age slower.

No vendor pages. Companies come and go. Attention, retrieval, and alignment will still be here.

No ads, no tracking beyond basic analytics, no accounts. There's nothing to sign up for.

No pretending to certainty. Where something is contested, the entry says so.

Who writes it

Artifipedia is an independent project, not a company product. It isn't affiliated with, endorsed by, or funded by any AI lab or vendor.

Funding

Nothing, currently. There are no ads and no sponsorship. If that changes, it will be disclosed on this page rather than quietly.

Corrections

If something here is wrong, it should be fixed. Email hello@artifipedia.com — corrections with a source are especially welcome, and there's no need to be polite about it.

Reuse

The map is free to embed on any site — there's a button on the page. Quote entries with a link back. If you want to do something larger with the content, ask.