What is it?

If you've made it to this website you've probably been asking this exact question and I'm guessing you haven't been able to find any satisfactory results. But this isn't surprising, the Internet is becoming increasingly hard to navigate and with the addition of AI, it isn't becoming any easier. But worry not! My goal is to alleviate some of your concerns by answering the frequently-asked-questions that I've also been asking. In doing so, I hope to provide you some clarity on today's current technological boogeyman.

"AI this.. AI that.. what's the big fuss with AI and why is it suddenly invading every part of my life?"

Asking "what is it?" is a reasonable place to start when we encounter something new. But the problem with this question is that it's a bunch of other questions loaded into one. By "what is it?" do we actually want to know "what can it do?" I'm sure you probably have some guess-timate as to what it is by what it affords. Or perhaps you mean to ask, "how does it work?" These are all very different asks so I will start by focusing on the broader idea in order to narrow in on the what. Later, I will break down all the former composite questions after establishing the basis of AI. Thus, we can begin by picking apart its name.

"ar·ti·fi·cial in·tel·li·gence"

Does the term insist on itself? Maybe just a tad.

The issue in understanding a term like artificial intelligence is in the abstract qualities of its parts. We have a vague sense of what “AI” tries to encompass, but simply accepting its common definition does not account for its intentions or purpose. For example, a widely agreed upon understanding of AI is “the simulation of human intelligence in machines,” but how should we interpret “human intelligence” and what constitutes “simulation?” Neither questions have simple answers and attempting to define AI in ambiguous terms does nothing but raise more concerns.