What Are Tokens in AI? A Practical Explanation
A token is the unit of text an AI model actually reads and writes — it can be a single character or a whole word, depending on…
FROM THE AUTHOR
John C. Mullen
Explore the published guides and contributions from John C. Mullen.
46 published articlesHow to Turn a Repeated AI Task into a Reusable Workflow
A reusable AI workflow is not a saved prompt but a small operating procedure with defined inputs, checkpoints, an output format, and acceptance tests. The practical path…
How to Log AI Integration Errors Without Exposing Sensitive Data
Log AI integration errors for the operator, not for the caller or the model. The workable rule is to sanitize at the adapter boundary, return a stable…
Why AI Answers Can Sound Confident and Still Be Wrong
A language model's confident tone is a property of its generated text, not evidence that the claim is true. OpenAI researchers argue that hallucinations persist because training…
AI APIs Explained: Authentication, Tokens, Costs, and Error Handling
AI APIs are metered HTTP interfaces: a credential authorizes the spend, tokens are the billing unit in both directions, and failures arrive as structured status codes rather…
How to Process Bulk AI Writing Jobs with a Queue
Bulk AI writing works best as a two-stage pipeline: a planner creates one durable job per article, and a worker pulls jobs at a controlled rate and…
How to Document a Prompt Experiment for Other Users
A prompt experiment is only reproducible if the record captures more than the prompt text. Document the immutable prompt revision, its variable and output contract, the model…
How to Choose a Local AI Model for Your Computer
Choosing a local AI model is a hardware-fit problem before it is a model-quality problem. Define the job, find your real memory budget, estimate weights plus KV…
How to Write a Prompt with Clear Success Criteria
A prompt with clear success criteria states the outcome you want, the constraints that matter, the evidence the model may use, and what the final answer must…
How to Install Ollama and Run Your First Local Model
Ollama installs with a single command on macOS, Linux, and Windows, and a first local model can be running within minutes. This guide covers prerequisites, installation per…
Why a Local AI Model Runs Slowly: A Troubleshooting Checklist
A slow local AI model is usually not one problem. Separate model loading, prompt processing, and token generation first, then check GPU offload, context length, quantization, and…
AI for WordPress: Content Workflows, Integrations, and Quality Control
AI for WordPress connects AI models and agents to your site to assist with drafting, editing, alt text, comment moderation, and publishing workflows. This guide covers the…