What is AI?

You've probably heard a lot about  AI recently, but what is it, really? AI, or artificial intelligence, is when  we teach computers how to do things  that usually require human intelligence,  like identifying an object,  understanding human speech, and even talking. But how do you teach a computer  to "learn" and "think"? Well, it's kind of like when  you train a pet to do tricks. Think of AI as a robot dog that  you're training to fetch a toy. At first, your robot dog might  not even know what a "dog toy" is! So that's the first thing you need to teach it. You show it lots of pictures of "dog toys" so that  it learns to recognize them quickly and easily. It might make some mistakes at first, but  with each correct answer, it gets a reward. Over time, the dog's recognition improves, the same way you improve at  any task the more you do it. And once the robot dog gets really  good at recognizing what a dog toy is, you can move on to teaching it  the next step of playing fetch – running after the toy and bringing it back to you. This is basic AI, which learns  by analyzing lots of data – in this case, pictures of dog  toys and how to play fetch. But there's something even more  complex, called generative AI, which is more like a creative robot that can  improvise when it comes to making art or writing. Unlike the robot dog, the creative robot  learns from everything on the internet – videos, text, photos, you name it! When you ask it a question or give a hint,   it uses what it has learned from  the internet to create new things – like answers, stories, or even pictures. But here's the catch: that creative  robot can sometimes make mistakes. And it doesn't know the  difference between good and bad. It doesn't know if what it  creates is helpful or hurtful. It can't always tell facts from fiction,  or know where its information comes from. It might even use someone's  work without crediting them. It just sucks up all the random or not-so-random   information that's floating  out there on the internet. That's why we, as humans, have to think hard and be critical  about the information we receive from AI. We have to know what it does well and what it doesn't do well. As we use generative AI in our lives, remember  that we have to be smart and responsible with how we use it.