What is Artificial Intelligence?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the ability of a machine to perform tasks that would normally require human intelligence. Things like understanding text, recognising images, making decisions, or holding a conversation.

But heads up: when we say “intelligence” we don’t mean the machine thinks, feels, or has consciousness. It means it can process information and produce useful responses in a way that looks intelligent.

AI isn’t what you see in the movies

Let’s forget about Terminator, HAL 9000, and the Matrix. Real-world AI in 2026 doesn’t want to rule the world and it doesn’t have feelings. Today’s AI is a tool — a very powerful one, yes — but a tool nonetheless.

The AI from movies is called General AI (AGI): an intelligence that can perform any intellectual task a human can. This doesn’t exist yet, and nobody knows when — or whether — it will.

What we have today is called Narrow AI: systems that do ONE thing very well. A model that generates text, another that recognises faces, another that translates languages. Each one is an expert in its field, but it can’t do anything outside it.

You already use AI every day (without knowing it)

You might think AI is something for scientists or programmers. But if you own a smartphone, you use it every day:

Google Maps calculates the best route by analysing real-time traffic with AI. It’s not a simple distance calculation — it predicts traffic jams, accidents, and arrival times using millions of data points.

Spotify and Netflix recommend songs and shows to you. No human is studying your tastes — an AI model compares your behaviour with millions of other users and predicts what you’ll like.

Your phone’s autocorrect predicts the word you’re about to type. That’s AI — a model trained on millions of texts that has learned which words typically go together.

Your email’s spam filter separates legitimate mail from junk. It doesn’t compare against a fixed list — an AI model analyses the content, the sender, and suspicious patterns to decide.

Your phone’s camera uses AI for night mode, background blur, and facial recognition. When your phone identifies faces or enhances a dark photo, that’s an AI model processing the image.

Strong AI vs Weak AI

Weak AI (Narrow AI) is what we have today. Systems designed for a specific task. ChatGPT generates text. A self-driving car drives. A vision model recognises objects. Each is excellent at its specific job, but can’t do anything beyond it. ChatGPT can’t drive a car, and a self-driving car can’t write a poem.

Strong AI (AGI — Artificial General Intelligence) would be an AI capable of performing any intellectual task a human can. Learning new things on its own, adapting to unknown situations, reasoning about any topic. This doesn’t exist yet. There’s debate about whether we’re years or decades away — or whether it’s possible at all.

Why does it matter now?

AI has gone from being a lab curiosity to being within everyone’s reach. With tools like ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini, anyone can interact with an AI model using natural language — no programming skills, no technical background required.

This is a paradigm shift comparable to the arrival of the internet or smartphones. And just as with the internet, those who understand how it works will have an edge over those who simply “use it without thinking”.

That’s why we’re here.

Key concepts today

  • AI (Artificial Intelligence): A machine’s ability to perform tasks that would normally require human intelligence
  • Narrow AI: AI designed for a specific task. This is what we have today
  • General AI (AGI): A hypothetical AI capable of any human intellectual task. It doesn’t exist yet
  • Model: The trained “brain” that does the work. We’ll talk much more about this in upcoming lessons

Next lesson: A brief history of AI — from Turing to ChatGPT.