How It Works

Clusters

Two meanings in AI. First, groups of similar data points that an algorithm finds on its own, without being told the categories — for example, sorting customers into look-alike groups ('clustering'). Second, a computer cluster: many machines, often thousands of GPUs, wired together to train or run large AI models as one system.

Origin · no single documented coiner

'Cluster analysis' was named in psychology by Robert Tryon in 1939, and the popular k-means method traces to Stuart Lloyd (1957) and James MacQueen, who coined 'k-means' in 1967. 'Computer cluster' grew out of 1960s–90s computing practice with no single coiner.

No single primary source link for this term.