untrained

Untrained is an adjective referring to someone or something that has not received training or instruction for a specific task or skill. It is typically relative to a standard, role, or required competency, and does not imply inherent ability or intelligence.

In people, the term describes individuals lacking formal schooling or practice in a particular area. It is often used in employment, safety, or hobby contexts to distinguish between those who have training and those who do not. The status can change with education or practice.

In animals, untrained generally describes animals that have not been taught commands or tasks, such as obedience or service work. Training involves conditioning, reinforcement, and behavior shaping; untrained animals may respond unpredictably and may require careful handling.

In machine learning and AI, an untrained model has not been fit to data. Its parameters reflect an initial state and its outputs are typically random or of low usefulness. Training tunes parameters using data, after which the model can generalize to new inputs.

See also training, education, skill, novice.