What is AI?
AI (artificial intelligence) is software that learns patterns from lots of examples, instead of following fixed rules.
AI stands for artificial intelligence. It is a computer program that learns patterns from huge numbers of examples: texts, images or numbers. It can then make or predict something new, like finishing a sentence or recognizing a photo. It does not think the way a person does. It works out the most likely answer.
Almost every new AI tool works this way. Once you get this, you see straight away why AI is sometimes stunningly good and sometimes confidently wrong.
Put precisely
AI is not one technology, it is an umbrella term. Almost everything now called AI is machine learning: software that pulls patterns out of examples. Older AI ran on rules that people typed in themselves.
Common misconception
That the computer understands what it says. It works with patterns and has no idea what anything means.
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Understand AI, calmly
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