A knowledge cutoff is the date after which a language model saw no training data. Events after that date are unknown to it unless they are supplied in the prompt or retrieved.
Category
AI
Also known as
training cutoff; cutoff date
The model will still answer questions about the period after its cutoff, and it answers confidently, from patterns in older text. Products add web search or retrieval to patch this; the model alone can't.
In practice
For anything time-sensitive, check whether the answer came from retrieval or from the model's memory. That covers a current price, a platform's latest feature, or a rule that changed. If the answer isn't cited, treat it as possibly stale.
Something out of date?