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Zapier
Zapier is an automation platform that connects thousands of apps and services so tasks can run without manual intervention, and in recent years it has evolved into a powerful AI‑driven orchestration layer. Founded in 2011, it popularized the concept of “Zaps” automated workflows that trigger actions in one app based on events in another eliminating repetitive work like copying data, sending notifications, or updating records. With its AI features, Zapier can now generate workflows from natural‑language instructions, build custom chatbots, and create “AI Agents” that analyze data, draft content, or respond to customers automatically. It integrates with over 7,000 apps and more than 300 AI tools, making it possible to combine large language models, vector databases, and everyday business software into seamless pipelines. This blend of no‑code accessibility and AI intelligence has made Zapier a go‑to tool for individuals and enterprises looking to scale productivity without adding engineering overhead.
Zero‑Shot Learning
Zero‑Shot Learning (ZSL) is a machine learning approach where a model can correctly perform a task or recognize a category it has never seen during training. Instead of relying on labeled examples for every possible class, the model uses **auxiliary knowledge** such as textual descriptions, semantic attributes, or relationships between known and unknown classes—to make the connection. For example, if a model has learned what a horse looks like and is told that a zebra is “a horse with black‑and‑white stripes,” it can identify a zebra without ever having been shown one before. This ability is especially valuable in situations where collecting labeled data is expensive, time‑consuming, or impossible, such as rare diseases, new product categories, or emerging languages. ZSL underpins many modern AI capabilities, from large language models that can follow novel instructions to computer vision systems that can classify entirely new objects based on descriptions alone.