Embark on a journey into the world of Artificial Intelligence with Chrissy Rey in this episode of “Website Success.” Chrissy breaks down AI into simple, digestible concepts, providing a beginner-friendly introduction to the fundamentals. Explore the essentials of AI, its various forms, and how it differs from human intelligence. Whether you’re a tech enthusiast or just curious about AI, this episode demystifies AI in a way that’s accessible to everyone.
Listen to the Episode
Show Notes
Host Chrissy Rey introduces the world of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in this informative episode of “Website Success.” This episode marks the start of a three-part series on AI, tailored for beginners. Chrissy aims to demystify AI, making it accessible and understandable for non-technical listeners.
Timestamps
- 00:00:09: Introduction to the AI series and its relevance to website success
- 00:00:59: Demystifying AI for beginners
- 00:01:16: Defining AI and its human-like capabilities
- 00:02:32: Various applications and abilities of AI
- 00:05:50: Differences between AI and human intelligence
- 00:08:14: Classification of AI and exploration of its types
- 00:11:20: Conclusion and what to expect in the next episode
Key Takeaways
- AI, or Artificial Intelligence, refers to computer programs that mimic human thought processes and learning.
- AI’s capabilities range from data pattern recognition to language processing and decision-making.
- Key differences between AI and human intelligence include processing speed, multitasking, emotional understanding, and creativity.
- AI types include Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI), Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), and more advanced concepts like theory of mind AI and self-aware AI.
- Despite its advancements, AI still lacks certain human qualities like consciousness and emotional depth.
Transcript
[00:00:09] Welcome back to Website Success. As always, I’m your host, Chrissy Rey. In previous episodes of this podcast, we’ve covered things like making websites, writing blog, posts, and SEO. But today we’re stepping into the realm of artificial intelligence, which we can use to help us with pretty much all of those things.
[00:00:39] This episode is the start of a three-part series on AI for absolute beginners, and I’m here to break down AI and to bite-sized easy to digest pieces. So, if you’re thinking of adding AI to your business toolkit, you’re in the right place.
[00:00:59] AI might sound like something out of a futuristic novel, but I promise it’s way more down to earth and accessible, even for those who aren’t tech wizards. Let’s dive into what AI really is and why it’s probably not as intimidating as it sounds.
[00:01:16] First of all, let’s define the term AI. AI stands for artificial intelligence, which is a fancy way of saying computer programs that can think and learn like humans. They’re like digital brains that can sift through tons of data, pick up new skills and even make decisions.
[00:01:35] If I asked you to read 50 pages about puppies, my one of my favorite subjects, and then summarize everything you learned. You could probably do it right? I mean, it might take a little while, but you could probably do it, especially if you’re like me and you love puppies. You would have to go to each page, read through it, probably make some notes, and then summarize what most of the pages say about the puppies. That process demonstrates your natural human intelligence.
[00:02:07] Now, if you wanted AI to do all of that for you, you could write a program, or a coder could write a program, that told the computer to read the website pages, scan for any similarities, and then summarize what it found. That program would need to copy a human’s ability to learn about puppies from examples, and then make conclusions, even though the software doesn’t have any natural, common sense.
[00:02:32] So just what can AI do besides read and summarize about puppies?
[00:02:37] First of all, AI is really good at identifying patterns and regularities in data. If you’ve ever received a text about unusual spending activity on your credit card, you’ve seen this in action. That’s AI keeping an eye on your spending habits and raising the alarm. If anything looks fishy.
[00:02:57] AI can also improve its performance by learning from data over time as seen in Spotify’s music recommendation engine. It learns from your listening habits and over time. It becomes a pro at predicting what tunes you’ll jam out to next. It’s kind of like having a personal DJ who really gets you.
[00:03:18] Now AI is not just about numbers. It does have a way with words too, thanks to one of my favorite subjects, natural language processing. Google translate, for instance, breaks down language barriers, letting you chat with friends across the globe. I recently went to Costa Rica with my family., And we use the heck out of Google translate everywhere that we couldn’t understand what people were saying, or if they couldn’t understand what we were saying, we were using Google translate and that’s a really great example of natural language processing.
[00:03:50] AI can also identify individuals through facial and speech recognition. If you’ve ever unlocked your phone with a glance, or asked Siri for weather updates, you’ve used this.
[00:04:03] AI can also analyze historical data to make predictions about future advance. So it’s kind of like a psychic. Weather forecasting models, for instance, use AI to predict when you’re going to need that umbrella.
[00:04:17] AI can also automate repetitive and time-consuming tasks. So, if you remember that 50 pages about puppy scenario, I talked about earlier, AI is perfect for reading through all of that, and summarizing it for you. So you don’t have to spend hours going through 50 pages about puppies or 50 websites about puppies and summarizing it all.
[00:04:38] AI can also personalize user experiences based on preferences and behaviors. A really great example of this is Netflix. My husband, son, and I each watch shows and movies under our own profiles on our Netflix account. And the recommendations that we each get are very, very different. So, for example, my son gets lots of anime recommendations. My husband, he gets lots of documentary and true crime recommendations. And I get all of the scifi, fantasy and romantic comedy recommendations. Netflix really knows what each of us likes.
[00:05:15] AI is also really good with images and video analysis. If you’ve ever wondered how self-driving cars see that’s AI analyzing images and videos in real time, making sense of roads, traffic signals and everything in between.
[00:05:30] And finally AI can help with making decisions. In the world of finance AI algorithms can analyze market data and help to execute smart trades. It’s like having a financial guru in your computer, crunching those numbers and telling you what to do with them.
[00:05:50] Now that you know, a little bit about what AI can do, let’s talk about how it’s different from human intelligence.
[00:05:56] And first up there’s processing speed. AI can zip through data at lightning speed, leaving humans in the dust. While we’re really good at deep thinking. AI is the champion crunching numbers faster than you can say, calculator.
[00:06:11] Plus AI is really good at multitasking. It’s much better at doing that than humans. Computers can handle loads of high level tasks at once, but your brain? Not so much. Sure, it can keep your lungs breathing, your heart pumping, and your stomach digesting all at once. But those are all low level functions. If you’ve ever tried counting to 100 while carrying on a conversation at the same time, you’ve probably learned you’re not very good at high level function multitasking. Humans really can’t multitask and if you think that you are good at multitasking, what you’re really good at is task switching.
[00:06:52] Another huge difference between AI and human intelligence is that humans are self-aware conscious beings. AI, not so much. It’s smart, sure, but don’t expect it to ponder the meaning of life, or enjoy a good sunset.
[00:07:07] AI also doesn’t have the ability to comprehend emotions. Humans can often feel joy, sadness, love -the whole emotional spectrum. AI can simulate those emotions, and maybe even recognize them, but it doesn’t generally feel them.
[00:07:22] Creativity is another area where humans shine, with our imagination and intuition. AI can mix and match existing ideas, but as for genuine creativity, that’s a human specialty. Plus we’re pros at understanding context and subtle nuances. Which are things that AI is still trying to grasp.
[00:07:42] If you’re making decisions about ethics and morals, that’s also a human thing. We can weigh right from wrong while AI follows program instructions. It’s kind of like having a rule book versus a conscience.
[00:07:55] And then let’s not forget language. I referred to that earlier in the natural language processing. Humans are really good at understanding nuances within language like sarcasm humor. AI is not quite there. So while it is able to process language, It’s not a hundred percent just yet.
[00:08:13] All right. Still with me?
[00:08:14] So we’ve explored the question, what is AI, and how artificial intelligence differs from our brains. Now let’s get specific on the types of AI out there.
[00:08:25] There are two ways to classify AI. One way is to do it based on how the AI can learn and apply its knowledge. And using this type of classification, there are three types of AI.
[00:08:36] The first type is artificial narrow or weak intelligence. This is also known as ANI and it’s designed for specific tasks, whether it’s playing chess, or recommending songs on Spotify. ANI is focused. it’s good at what it does, but it doesn’t venture beyond its expertise. Most of the AI that we use today, like chatbots and search engines and the aforementioned Spotify recommendations are ANI.
[00:09:07] Next up we’ve got artificial general strong AI or AGI. And that’s where you’ll be able to, or the AI will be able to learn, understand, and apply knowledge just like a human. AGI is currently still a work in progress.
[00:09:24] The final type is artificial super intelligence or ASI. And that’s where AI really takes it up a notch. ASI should surpass human intelligence in every field, creativity, emotions, decision-making. You name it? It should be able to do it better. And it’s currently the stuff of science fiction and a future that’s both exciting, and for a lot of people, a little bit scary.
[00:09:51] The other way to classify AI is to do it based on how the AI applies its learning capabilities to process data, respond to input ,and interact with its environment. Using this type of classification, we’ve got four types of AI.
[00:10:07] First you’ve got reactive machines that can respond to immediate requests, but they don’t learn from the experience, and IBM’s deep blue chess program is a great example of a reactive machine.
[00:10:20] We also have limited memory AI, which as the name implies, can remember and learn from past experiences. Most AI that you interact with today, like chatbots and self-driving cars falls into this category. Limited memory AI can observe, ,remember and improve over time, but the memory it’s limited. It’s not, long-term it’s limited in scope.
[00:10:44] The next type of AI is theory of mind AI, which is still on the coming soon category. These AI’s will understand emotions, beliefs, and needs. Imagine chatting with an AI that truly gets how you feel, because it can understand emotions.
[00:11:01] The most advanced form of AI is self-aware AI. This is the type of AI that really scares a lot of people. And there are a lot of ethical questions about whether or not humans should even attempt to create this type of AI. And for now there is no self-aware AI. It’s still in science fiction.
[00:11:20] All right. Let’s hit pause on our AI adventure for now. We’ve been on quite a journey and I don’t want to overload your brain circuits. So far we’ve discovered that AI is like a digital brainiac mimicking human smarts to do cool stuff like spotting patterns, chatting in our language, and predicting the future. It’s making our world smoother and smarter and countless ways. But remember, AI is still not quite like us. It hasn’t mastered the art of having a consciousness or feeling emotions. It’s smart, but don’t expect it to write a love poem or understand a joke just yet. We’ll pick up more AI secrets in our next episode. So stay tuned and come on back. Thanks for listening.