TL;DR
AI is computer programs that 'learn' from large amounts of data used to identify patterns to help it predict outcomes based on probabilities, not awareness or judgment. This predictive capability allows AI to generate outputs that would ordinarily require a human to create.
WTF is AI?
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a computer science and marketing term used to describe a range of computer programs that imitate characteristics commonly assocaited with human intellect, such as problem-solving. It is a way of making a computer program do things that normally require human intelligence to do. This could include things such as recognising objects in images, writing text, identifying patterns, analyising data, translating languages and more.
These programs learn from examples rather than a pre-defined set of rules. Rather than simply responding to user input based on a list of fixed instructions as traditional software does, AI attempts to predict outcomes based on patterns revealed through 'training', an examination of massive amounts of data. Once an AI model is trained, it is able to makd decisions or suggestions when it identifies something similar to what is has 'learned' through its training.
How AI works
When babies are growing up they learn through experience. If you wanted to teach a child what a cat is, you should them pictures of different cats. While no two feline friends are identical, there are common characteristics of cats that help humans identify cats.
AI systems work in a similar way. A set of data – in the case of a child perhaps 5–10 images of cats, but likely hundreds of thousands or more for an AI model – is used to spot patterns to (hopefully!) correctly distinquish between images of cats and images of dogs, chickens, goats, basketballs, trees or anything else.
Examples
- Content recommendations – AI is used on streaming services such as Netflix and Spotify to suggest other movies, TV shows or music a user may also like based on an analysis of the users content consumption habbits and those of other users.
- Face unlock – The use of computer vision in technology like FaceID on iPhones to unlock a smartphone when the users face is visible.
- Map navigation – Mapping software such as Google Maps uses AI to analyse real-time traffic conditions and predict the fastest route for a user to get from point A to point B, factoring in reported accidents, road closures, congestion and other factors impacting the journey.
- Social media feeds – What you see on social media is largely determined by AI predicting what content you are most likely to engage with.
- Spam filtering – An AI-based spam filter in an email system is not given a list of every spam email ever written. The system learns from thousands of examples of spam and legitimate emails and is then able to 'decide' if new emails are likely spam.
What AI isn't
Despite the killer robots trope popular in many science fiction novels, movies and TV shows, AI:
- is not intelligent,
- is not conscious,
- does not have feelings,
- does not act with intention, and
- does not 'think' like humans.
AI systems are able to understand the world based on the training data they have been exposed to, but they do not understand it in the same way as you and I do.
Disclosure
AI use
Some parts of the text were drawn from or inspired by text generated using AI the following prompt:
{ Explain artificial intelligence for a non-tech savvy audience. Describe what it is, its common usages, a short history. Also provide examples where relevant. }
AI tools used: Google Gemini and GhatGPT.
No text was incorporated verbatim. All text in this resource was included at the author's discretion.
Provenance
This resource was produced by Elliott Bledsoe. It was first published on 18 July 2024. It was updated most recently on 16 Dec 2026. This is version 1.1.
Changelog
v 1.1 – 16 Dec 2026
Listing expanded.
v 1.0 – 18 July 2024
First version of the listing published.