On "foundational" models

[StEvUgnIn]

Foundational models is bad calling that is addressed in the article Reflection on Foundation Models by Stanford University:

Foundation models are neither “foundational” nor the foundations of AI. We deliberately chose “foundation” rather than “foundational”, because we found that “foundational” implied that these models provide fundamental principles in a way that “foundation” does not. For example, we can readily say “shaky foundations”, whereas “shaky and foundational” is unidiomatic. While many people currently find “foundational model” more natural to say, “foundation model” is grammatically a well-formed noun compound (incidentally parallel to “language model”). Further, “foundation” describes the (role of) model and not AI; we neither claim nor believe that foundation models alone are the foundation of AI, but instead note they are “only one component (though an increasingly important component) of an AI system” (see Section 1.2; pg. 7-9).

I am addressing this issue to replace any presence of the term foundational to avoid creating any confusion on the term.