MEPX
Chapter 1 of 12All chapters
  1. 1What AI means
  2. 2How machine learning works
  3. 3Training data
  4. 4Kinds of learning
  5. 5Neural networks
  6. 6Large language models
  7. 7Limits and hallucination
  8. 8Bias and fairness
  9. 9Using AI well
  10. 10Privacy and safety
  11. 11Beyond text
  12. 12AI and work

Chapter 1 of 12

What AI means

A moving label, not one technology.

The shifting definition

Artificial intelligence names whatever computers cannot yet do comfortably. Chess, spell checking and route finding were all AI until they worked, at which point they became software.

  • Today the label mostly means machine learning, and often specifically large models.
  • Narrow AI does one task well. General intelligence across tasks does not exist yet.

Rules against learning

Older systems encoded expert rules by hand and failed whenever reality fell outside them. Modern systems learn the rules from data instead, which is why they handle mess better and explain themselves worse.