What is ai and how does it actually work — explained simply

Ai. Ai. Ai. You see it plastered all over social media, in the news, on apps that do, well, practically anything. But let’s be real.

You probably still don’t really get what ai is and how it works.

No sweat, this is the plain English explain-it-to-your-grandma version that requires zilch for prior tech knowledge.

Ai stands for artificial intelligence.

At its simplest, ai is the idea of computers that learn. And then make decisions. Don’t get alarmist; no robot uprising is at play here. Just some software getting progressively brilliant based on how much information it siphons.

and how in tarnation does it learn?

Think about a toddler, showing them hundreds and hundreds of images of the same feline, and one day-presto-they’ll recognize even your shadiest cat neighbor as a cat. That’s essentially what ai does: it consumes mass quantities of information, like text, images, numbers, you name it. Then, boom, patterns are identified.

okay, so, what’s this whole “language model” buzz about?

Those of you using chatgpt or their counterparts are, in effect, playing around with something referred to as large language models (llms). These beasts were trained by analyzing a gazillion web pages, a few billion books and more of other data to grasp all the ins and outs of language – grammar, sentence construction, what-the-heck words should go where to form coherent thoughts, etc.

It doesn’t “think,” per se.

And here’s the kicker: ai does not, nor can it, reason like human beings. It’s actually a super-advanced form of prediction that calculates what comes next based on patterns and previously absorbed data. While incredibly proficient at it, the machine is neither self-aware nor emotional.

why is it occasionally hilariously wrong?

Because it’s operating like a glorified prediction machine, not a diligent fact-checker. If the training data contained false or flawed information, chances are the ai will reproduce it with surprising conviction. Therefore, double-checking significant information generated by an ai against reliable sources is an essential practice.

At the end of the day, ai is an extraordinary instrument, not a mystical artifact. By demystifying its inner workings, you’ll empower yourself to leverage it more effectively and develop the critical capacity to detect and circumvent its missteps.