Lesson 1 of 1570
Defining Artificial Intelligence
AI is a label that covers many things. Let's narrow it down so you can tell marketing hype from the real computer science underneath.
Lesson map
What this lesson covers
Learning path
The main moves in order
- 1A Term That Hides a Lot
- 2AI definition
- 3machine learning
- 4deep learning
Concept cluster
Terms to connect while reading
Section 1
A Term That Hides a Lot
Artificial intelligence is a huge umbrella term. It covers everything from the auto-correct on your phone to the chatbots that write full essays. When someone says AI, it helps to know which kind they actually mean.
A working definition: AI is any computer system that does tasks we usually associate with human intelligence. That includes recognizing images, understanding language, playing games, and making decisions.
The nested layers
- AI: any system that acts intelligently, even if it is just simple rules
- Machine learning: systems that learn from data instead of being hand-coded
- Deep learning: machine learning that uses neural networks with many layers
- Modern LLMs: a specific flavor of deep learning focused on language
Old AI vs. new AI
Compare the options
| Old AI (before 2010) | Modern AI (after 2015) |
|---|---|
| Mostly hand-coded rules | Learned from huge datasets |
| Struggled outside narrow tasks | Flexible across many tasks |
| Expert systems, decision trees | Deep neural networks, transformers |
| Small computers were enough | Needs data center GPUs |
If someone tries to sell you on an AI product, ask: is it actually learning, or is it just a bunch of if-then rules? Both can be useful, but they solve different problems.
“AI is whatever has not been done yet.”
A checklist for spotting real AI
- 1Does it learn from data?
- 2Does it get better with more examples?
- 3Can it handle situations it was not explicitly coded for?
- 4Does it produce outputs, not just retrieve stored answers?
Key terms in this lesson
The big idea: AI is a nested family of techniques. Knowing which layer someone is talking about keeps you from being fooled by vague language.
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