What is AI? Artificial Intelligence Explained As Simply A Possible
The chokehold AI has on every news cycle and social media feed is so suffocating it’s actually annoying. It’s “revolutionizing” this, “transforming” that, and by next year, it’s coming for your job on its quest to eventually destroy all of humanity. It’s A LOT. It’s way too much drama for something most people just know as “ChatGPT.”
And AI has been a major part of your life long before ChatGPT. When your phone unlocks with a glance, that’s AI. When Spotify serves up a playlist that just gets you, that’s AI. When you get a fraud alert on your credit card because you bought gas station sushi at 3 AM, that’s AI, too. That is, unless you really did buy gas station sushi at 3 AM, in which case you should look at that as a sign to re-evaluate your life choices.
It’s important to understand artificial intelligence—what it is and what it means for all of us—because it is already transforming our realities, whether we want to remain ignorant about it or not. But it’s not going to spin the world on its head or take over humankind. It’s not that deep… for now.
But let’s also be clear here - the future of work, how we live, and perhaps even the way we have relationships (I’m a hard no on an AI bot partner, but to each their own) will all significantly change because of AI. And it’s happening faster than ever. In some cases, scarily fast. Geoffrey Hinton, the de facto godfather of AI, has often talked about how fast AI has evolved. In fact, in late 2025, he said, "I'm probably more worried it's progressed even faster than I thought, in particular, it's got better at doing things like reasoning and also at things like deceiving people." He said this, noting his increased concern compared with just two years earlier. If that's not the starkest of warnings…
Fortunately, it’s all within our control. As in, humankind’s control. Us against the bots. AI is built on us, so my bets are on (most) humans, no shade to the bots. The best part is, they don’t care anyway, because AI cannot feel (for now). Besides, the word ‘artificial’ is in its very name. Everyone knows artificial is never as good as the real deal. Anyone care for an artificial Birkin Bag over an authentic one? I think not. And in reality, it seriously isn’t that serious. It’s not us against the bots; it’s us with the bots (though we're really the ones controlling them).
So how do we control AI? We build our AI literacy, also known as our AIQ. Our artificial intelligence quotient. AI is here, and it’s only becoming a more dominant force in our world and our everyday lives. Just like we need EQ to navigate the drama that is some workplace situations, AIQ is necessary to navigate the new world we’re embarking on. AI literacy for AIQ is what we need to deal with this new reality, whether we want to embrace it or not. It will render some career tracks and industries obsolete, thereby eliminating jobs. In fact, it’s already started. Microsoft, a leader in the AI race, eliminated 1,900 jobs in its gaming division in early 2024.
But while AI is and will continue to take jobs, it’s also creating new jobs and industries even faster. Think of it this way. Just like the typewriter became obsolete to make way for computers, AI is making industries and functions obsolete, but at the same time, AI is creating a whole new world of new industries and jobs for those who choose to embrace it, learn it, and use it to their advantage. Now, if you were one of the few typewriter holdouts, believing it was somehow making a comeback, you’d be unemployable and incomeless (and delusional, although we’re not doctors, so this is not a medical diagnosis).
More importantly, AI intelligence, or AIQ, is necessary to manage AI so it doesn’t get out of control or become weaponized for nefarious purposes. As with any innovation, there’s a dark side to AI that can’t be overlooked. It can be misused, abused, and get out of control in unprecedented ways that humans can’t stop. And no, we’re not talking about the played-out sci-fi nonsense about robots taking over, either. We're talking about deepfakes, misinformation, the risks of overreliance, and the effects on our environment. There are countless ways AI can pose risks straight out of our worst nightmares. And if some AI futurists get their way with AGI or ASI, we may actually get to the point where the technology will be able to feel and think for itself. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want some humans to feel and think for themselves, so the idea of a robot being able to do the same (possibly with impunity) should frighten us all to our core.
But it’s not all doom and gloom, I promise. And AI isn’t difficult to understand, nor is it anything to be intimidated by. It’s important to embrace it so you can use it to your advantage and level up your own human intelligence. You can make your job easier, your daily life simpler, or maybe even cash in on the many new opportunities to make money, whether through a side hustle or a brand new (highly lucrative) career in AI. Furthermore, with our collective human intelligence, we can learn AI to the point where we can advocate for laws and governance around the future of AI. Because an existential crisis caused by AI is still within our control—until it’s not.
Table of Contents
Now, What Exactly is Artificial Intelligence?
Now that we’ve established that Artificial Intelligence isn’t the beginning of the end of mankind, let's get into what it actually is beyond ChatGPT or Claude. Is it revolutionary? Absolutely. Will it transform the world as we know it? In many ways, yes. Think of it as an innovative technological breakthrough at its finest. But it literally isn’t rocket science, either.
At its core, AI is basically a very (very, very) fast pattern-spotter. It has no vibes, no feels. Just straight data, processed at an unprecedented scale. Think of it as technology that’s been fed a shit ton of data—pictures, text, sounds, you name it—and it learns to make incredibly precise “educated guesses” about new stuff it encounters. Take your phone’s autofill function. Based on the patterns in your language, it “predicts” what comes next, which feels like it’s writing the rest of the sentence for you. But that’s only because the data told it so in a nanosecond. At its heart, this process is Machine Learning. The "learns from examples" part is the secret sauce. Old-school software was a strict rulebook: if X happens, do Y. If you click the “add to cart” button, the product is added to the cart because that's how the website is coded. AI flips that script. You don’t have to write a rule (the code) for every possible scenario. You just show it a million pictures of cats, and it figures out the essence of “cat-ness” on its own. It learns, and then it just knows.
And to keep expectations grounded: AI doesn't "think" like you. It has no common sense (though, let’s be real, a lot of humans are lacking in that department too), no opinions, no intentions, and no feelings. It's a powerful tool, for sure. But conscious? Nope. Not even close. The lights are on, but no one is home. Not a good look if you were to say that about a human, but with the bots, it’s a good thing.
Is AI a Digital Brain? Sort Of (But Not Really)
Modern AI is built on "neural networks," which sounds more technical than it is. It is simply AI’s “brain,” closely inspired by the human brain. Think of it as layers of interconnected digital nodes that work together to process information, much like neurons fire in your brain. While neural networks are essentially the AI brain, there are several key differences that set them apart.
Here's where the whole "digital brain" idea falls apart:
Speed vs. Smarts: AI processes information at (practically) the speed of light. Your brain's signals are, by comparison, crawling at a snail's pace. Yet, you can learn to ride a bike after a few tries; an AI might need to simulate millions of attempts.
The Learning Curve: You can see one or two examples of a new concept and get it. AI needs a ridiculous amount of data to learn the same thing. It's a data-hungry beast.
Different Skill Sets: AI can crush complex math problems that would make your head explode. But ask it to do something simple for a human—like recognizing a friend in a crowded photo—and it may not get it. We're just built differently.
So, is it a brain? Not exactly. It's a powerful but alien form of intelligence that's good at some things and comically bad at others.
AI's Origin Story: From Ancient Myths to Your iPhone
The dream of a thinking machine isn't new. Ancient Greeks imagined intelligent robots, and Alan Turing, the godfather of modern computing, was asking if machines could think back in the 1950s. The term "artificial intelligence" was officially coined in 1956, and the hype train left the station.
But it wasn't a smooth ride. The 70s and late 80s brought two "AI Winters"—periods where the hype outran the reality, funding dried up, and the whole field nearly died. Turns out, building a “thinking” machine was harder than anyone had imagined.
But things finally started to pick back up in the 90s when IBM's Deep Blue beat the world chess champion. Then came the Roomba in 2002, after years of testing, followed by Siri in 2010. But the real explosion happened after 2012 with the rise of Deep Learning, the engine behind modern Generative AI, the technology that can create new text, images, and code from a prompt. This was made possible by three things that came together: massive datasets (thanks, internet), insane computing power (shout-out to all the gamers and their GPUs), and smarter algorithms.
That's the trifecta that brought us to where we are today, with AI that can write essays, generate photorealistic images, and tell you a new bedtime story every night.
See also: The History of AI: How We Got Here & Where We’re Going
So, Why Should You Actually Care?
Because AI has escaped the lab, it’s no longer a theoretical topic or subset of technology for academics and sci-fi nerds. It’s reshaping every industry, from how doctors diagnose diseases to how we fight climate change. It’s automating the repetitive, boring stuff, speeding up analysis, and solving problems that were once too massive for the human mind to tackle alone.
Understanding AI has become as fundamental as knowing how to use the internet. It’s about knowing about and engaging with the modern technological revolution of our time (so far). It’s about being able to separate the real opportunities from the bullshit. It’s about having the AIQ to not just survive, but thrive in a world where this technology is everywhere. This isn’t about the future; it’s about the now.
Rule-Followers vs. Rule-Breakers: Why AI Is a Different Beast
Think of traditional software as It's that co-worker you can’t let think for themselves. You must provide the exact step-by-step instructions on how to do everything from … basically a neurotic hall monitor with a rulebook thicker than a CVS receipt. If X happens, do exactly Y—no exceptions, no improvisation, no "vibes." Click "add to cart"? Boom, item added. Do something weird? An error message and an irritating timeout message. Traditional technology is rigid and, dare I say, basic? AI changed the game with a new set of rules. Instead of hand-coding every possible scenario (impossible when the world is messy AF), you just dump a mountain of examples on it and say, "Figure it out." Show it a billion cat pics, and it starts spotting "cat-ness" without anyone spelling out whiskers + fur + judgmental stare. That's machine learning in a nutshell: patterns over prescriptions.
This is why AI crushes stuff like spam filters (probabilities, not checklists), voice assistants that kinda get your accent now, or Netflix knowing you better than your therapist. It's built for chaos, not perfection. But here's the tea: that adaptability is a double-edged sword. It can evolve on its own in ways we didn't explicitly program, which is cool until bias sneaks in and gets amplified, or it starts "learning" the wrong lessons from shitty data. Cue the need for us humans with our superior brains to stay in the driver's seat.
Built for Messiness, Not Checklists
This learning-based approach is why AI can handle the beautiful, chaotic mess of the real world. Human language is ambiguous. Images are noisy. Our behavior is wildly inconsistent (especially some people). A rule-based system would fail, point-blank. But AI thrives in this "fuzzy space," because it “thinks” in probabilities, not certainties. It can navigate ambiguity like a mf.
Your spam filter is the perfect example. A traditional filter would include a list of specific, forbidden words, so spammers would just change one word and get through. A modern, AI-powered filter, however, has analyzed millions of emails and has learned the spam game. It doesn't require a specific rule or language to determine whether an email is spam. It just says, "Based on a thousand subtle patterns, there's a 98% chance this is garbage," and punts it into the abyss where it belongs (if only it can do the same with spam calls?). That’s its magic: it can navigate the gray areas of life. Unlike traditional programming, AI is not written or coded in black and white. This is a classic case of Predictive AI, using past data to forecast future outcomes. But this predictive “thought-process” is what’s behind generative AI, the types of tools like ChatGPT and Mid-Journey, AI LLMs that generate things (the name is a dead giveaway).
The Double-Edged Sword of Evolution
Here’s where it gets really interesting—and a little scary. Traditional software is static. It remains unchanged until a programmer manually updates or “reprograms” it. AI, however, can evolve autonomously. As it gets more data, it refines its understanding and improves over time—all on its own.
This is its superpower, but it’s also what introduces risk. An AI learning from biased data can develop and amplify that bias in ways we don’t intend. Because it’s not following a predictable script, it can fail in bizarre, unpredictable ways. This self-modification capability is what makes AI so powerful, but it’s also why understanding and managing it—having a high AIQ—is non-negotiable. We’re no longer just giving orders; we’re tending to something that learns and grows on its own.
The Three Levels of AI: The Specialist, The Genius, and The God
Not all AI is created equal. When people talk about “AI,” they’re usually mushing together three very different concepts, which is where most of the confusion (and fear-mongering) comes from. Think of it like power levels in a video game. There’s the one we have now, the one we’re trying to build, and the one that might change everything (if it actually can be built).
Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI) — The Specialist
Right now, we're living in the era of ANI (Artificial Narrow Intelligence)—the specialist. Every single AI you have ever interacted with is ANI. Full stop.
Think of ANI as a hyper-specialized idiot savant. It’s a system that is brilliant at one specific task but is completely useless at everything else. The AI that powers your Netflix recommendations can predict your next binge-watch with terrifying accuracy, but it can’t write you an email. The AI in your phone that unlocks with a glance is a master of Computer Vision, but it can't balance your checkbook. ChatGPT can write a sonnet about your dog, thanks to Natural Language Processing (NLP, but it can't order you dinner (how useless). It’s a self-driving car that (typically) doesn't crash into a bus, but can’t do your laundry. It's the genius who can solve differential equations as simply as finishing the ABCs, yet can't tie their own shoes.
Simply put, ANI is a master of a single domain. Think of ANI as the jack of one trade who masters it, but nothing else. This isn’t a flaw; it’s by design. We have AI that can detect cancer in medical scans, AI that can beat the world’s best chess players, and AI that can filter spam out of your inbox. They are powerful tools, but they are narrow. They don’t “think” or have general awareness; they just execute the one task they were built for.
Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) — The All-Rounder
AGI is a machine with human-level cognitive abilities. Not just appearing to have human-level cognitive abilities, but actually having the type of dynamic intelligence (most) humans have. It wouldn’t just be good at one thing; it could learn, reason, and apply its intelligence to solve any problem, just like a person can. An AGI could write a novel, then debug the code for a website, then have a meaningful conversation about philosophy.
This is the level of AI that companies like OpenAI and Google are racing to build. It’s also the point where things start to get weird and legit scary. We're not there yet, but it’s certainly not stopping AI tech leaders from trying. Geoffrey Hinton and others are sounding alarms because once AGI arrives, the game changes overnight. We have no idea when, or even if, we will ever achieve AGI. Some experts think it’s decades away; others think it’s much further. But if we do crack it, it would represent a fundamental shift in the nature of intelligence on Earth. While there are certainly potentially game-changing benefits to this level of intelligence, it also has many potentially detrimental ramifications for humanity. This is when we start creeping into science fiction nightmare territory, where robots turn on us. Give ChatGPT an attitude or make it rewrite your damn email one too many times, and it may decide to send its cousin, the hitman bot, to your home to break your kneecaps. I’m shook.
Artificial Superintelligence (ASI) — The God-Machine
This is the theoretical endgame that will literally end the game of life for all of us. ASI is an intellect so far beyond human intelligence that even our most naturally intelligent human minds cannot properly comprehend it. It wouldn’t just be smarter than the smartest human; it would be to us what we are to an ant. AGI is the god-mode version that leaves human smarts in the dust. It could solve problems we don’t even have the vocabulary to describe, from curing all diseases to unlocking the secrets of the universe. Sounds brilliant until it’s an existential crisis.
ASI is legit what sci-fi nightmares are literally made of. If we create something vastly more intelligent than ourselves, how do we ensure it stays aligned with our values? Or will it even give two shits about mankind at all? How do we control or even work with something that can out-think us in every conceivable way? Fortunately, we’re a very long way from this being a reality, if at all. But the questions it raises are so profound that we need to start thinking about them now. Because this is the level at which the existential crisis we discussed earlier ceases to be hypothetical and becomes a real possibility. However, it’s within our control at present because we're the ones building it. AIQ means we push for alignment, safety guardrails, and governance before we hit the point of no return. I’m confident I can go out on a limb and speak for all of mankind in saying it would behoove all of us to build our AIQ before it gets that serious.
See also: Types of AI: Narrow, General, and Super AI Explained
The Two-Faced Coin: AI's Promise and Its Peril
AI is powerful, it’s weird, and it’s not going away. It isn’t a question of if it will change things, but how. Like any innovation powerful enough to reshape the world, it’s a double-edged sword. It holds the potential for a mind-bogglingly bright future and, at the same time, a collection of brand-new nightmares we can’t even fathom just yet.
The Upside: It’s Your New Superpowered Intern
At its best, it's like having a team of brilliant, tireless interns who can sift through mountains of data in seconds and can work for you 24/7 without needing a break to eat or sleep. Who wouldn’t love that for themselves? And its impact spans even beyond making our daily lives exponentially easier.
In medicine, AI is helping doctors detect diseases such as cancer earlier and more accurately than ever before. In science, it’s accelerating research for everything from developing new medicines to creating models that can predict the effects of climate change. For businesses, it’s a powerhouse of efficiency, automating the soul-crushing, repetitive tasks that nobody wants to do and freeing up humans to focus on more creative, strategic work and higher-level thinking.
And for you? It’s a chance to level up. The rise of AI is creating entirely new jobs, careers, side hustles, and opportunities to build something that didn’t exist five years ago. Developing a high AIQ doesn’t just help you navigate the world ahead; it positions you to take advantage of these new frontiers. It’s about making your job easier, your life more efficient, and maybe even making money in new ways, or building something new that could make you millions. The opportunities are endless. It’s truly a transformative period, and we’re just getting started.
The Downside: The Nightmares We Need to Watch For
On the other hand, AI can create problems and crises we may or may not anticipate. The risks of AI aren’t just Hollywood fantasies about killer robots; they are real, and some of them are already rearing their ugly heads.
Bias on Steroids: Remember “garbage in, garbage out?” If we train AI on data that reflects our own societal biases (and we always do), the AI will not only learn those biases but can amplify them to a terrifying degree. We’re talking about AI systems that could make biased decisions in hiring, loan applications, and even criminal justice, all under a veneer of technological neutrality. As if we need more bias in our lives? No thanks. The worst part is that it can create new biases and reinforce existing ones, thereby exacerbating them.
The Misinformation Machine: You’ve seen the deepfakes. AI enables us to create synthetic images, voices, and videos that are indistinguishable from reality. In a world where we can no longer trust our own eyes and ears, the potential for chaos, propaganda, and the complete erosion of truth is staggering.
The Job Question: Will AI take your job? The honest answer is… maybe. It will definitely eliminate some jobs, particularly those that are repetitive and rules-based. While it will also create new ones, the transition could be brutal for a lot of people if we don’t prepare for it. [Internal Link: Is AI Coming for Your Job?]
The Environmental Toll: Let’s not forget that AI consumes a ridiculous amount of electricity. The data centers that power these models have a massive carbon footprint, and as AI becomes more integrated into our lives, its demand for energy will only grow.
This is why we can’t afford to be ignorant. These are not problems that a handful of tech bros in Silicon Valley can solve for us. They are societal challenges that require all of us to be informed, engaged, and ready to demand better. This is the core of AIQ: understanding both the light and the dark, so we can steer this ship together, before it steers us into oblivion.
What's Coming Next: The AI Future Is Already Here
If you think AI has been moving fast, it’s about to get faster. The next few years are going to make the last decade look like a warm-up lap. We're not talking about distant sci-fi futures anymore. The technologies being built right now are already reshaping what's possible, and they're coming at you whether you're ready or not.
The Rise of AI Agents: Your Digital Employees
Remember when we said all current AI is narrow? That's changing. AI Agents [Internal Link: What is an AI Agent?] are the next evolution—systems that don't just respond to your commands but can actually take action on your behalf. But it’s still not AGI, so don’t worry. But it’s not as narrow as current AI, it can do multiple tasks in combination with each other. Think of them as digital assistants on steroids. They can book your appointments, manage your calendar, research and purchase products, and even handle customer service inquiries without you lifting a finger.
This isn't hype. According to Deloitte's 2025 Technology Predictions, 25% of companies using generative AI will launch agentic AI pilots in 2025, with that number doubling to 50% by 2027. Companies are already deploying these agents in customer service, sales, and software development. By 2030, you'll likely have your own personal AI agent managing chunks of your daily life. The question isn't if this will happen, but how much control you'll want to hand over.
Multimodal AI: When AI Sees, Hears, and Understands It All
The next generation of AI won't just read text or look at images—it will do it all at once. Multimodal AI can process text, images, audio, and video simultaneously, understanding context across all of them. This means an AI could watch a video, read the comments, listen to the audio, and give you a comprehensive analysis of what's happening and why it matters.
Research published in Nature Digital Medicine shows that multimodal AI systems—which integrate diverse data types such as text, images, and clinical information—significantly outperform single-modality systems on complex tasks, including medical diagnostics and decision-making. This isn't just a marginal improvement; it's a fundamental leap in capability.
This is the technology that will power the next wave of virtual assistants, making them feel less like clunky chatbots and more like actual intelligent companions. It's also what will make AI-powered education, healthcare diagnostics, and creative tools exponentially more powerful. When AI can understand the full context of a situation—not just one slice of it—it becomes genuinely useful in ways we're only beginning to explore.
Humanoid Robots: No Longer Just a Movie Thing
Yes, we're really doing this. Companies like Tesla, Boston Dynamics, and a dozen startups are building humanoid robots designed to work alongside humans in factories, warehouses, hospitals, and eventually, homes. Morgan Stanley projects that the humanoid robot market could reach $5 trillion by 2050, with adoption accelerating significantly in the late 2030s. By 2030, experts predict that more than 100,000 humanoid robots will be operating in real-world settings.
These aren't the clunky, falling-over robots of a few years ago. They're getting eerily good at navigating human spaces, manipulating objects, and learning new tasks. Tesla's Optimus is being designed to handle repetitive tasks in manufacturing. Figure AI is targeting logistics and warehouse operations. Boston Dynamics' Atlas can now run, jump, and perform complex movements that would have seemed impossible just a few years ago.
Whether this excites or terrifies you probably depends on how much you've been paying attention to the job market. But one thing is clear: the age of humanoid robots working alongside humans isn't decades away. It's happening now.
AI in Science: Accelerating Discovery at Warp Speed
AI is already being used to discover new drugs, design better materials, and model climate change scenarios. But the next phase is even more ambitious. AI systems are now capable of generating scientific hypotheses, designing experiments, and even interpreting results—essentially doing the work of a research team in a fraction of the time.
In drug discovery alone, AI is compressing timelines from years to months. Multiple AI-discovered drugs are now in clinical trials, and the technology is being applied to everything from materials science to climate modeling. This could mean breakthroughs in medicine, energy, and technology that would have taken decades happening in just years. It's one of the most exciting applications of AI, and one of the few areas where almost everyone agrees the benefits far outweigh the risks.
The Wildcard: What We Can't Predict
Here's the thing about exponential technologies: they don't just get a little better each year. They leap. And those leaps create possibilities—and problems—we can't foresee. Five years ago, almost no one predicted we'd have AI that could generate photorealistic images from text or write code that actually works. What will the next five years bring? Honestly, no one knows for sure.
That uncertainty is exactly why building your AIQ now is so critical. The future isn't something that happens to you. It's something you can shape, navigate, and leverage—if you understand the tools that are building it.
AI agents that don't just chat but actually do shit autonomously (book your flight, negotiate your salary, run your side hustle while you sleep). Multimodal models that grok text + images + video + audio like it's nothing. Humanoid robots finally leaving the lab. AI accelerating science so fast we might crack fusion or longevity in our lifetimes.
It's coming quicker than most think. But the hype cycles will crash, winters might hit again, and not every shiny tool will stick. The winners? People who built their AIQ early—folks who experiment, learn the tools, spot opportunities, and aren't afraid to call BS on the grifters
Making it all make sense: What’s your move?
So, what's your move? Are you going to sit on the sidelines and let the world happen to you, or are you going to level up your AIQ and take control? The bots are here. The choice is yours.
AI isn't the apocalypse or the messiah. It's a tool—powerful, weird, evolving stupidly fast—and we're still holding the reins (for now). The real flex isn't fearing the bots; it's leveling up your own intelligence about them. AI will create opportunities. It will eliminate jobs and create new ones. It will solve problems we've struggled with for generations and introduce risks we've never faced before. The question isn't whether AI will change your life. It already has. The question is whether you'll understand it well enough to steer that change in your favor.
And you don’t need to be a programmer or a data scientist to understand and take advantage of the many opportunities that building your AIQ offers you. You just need to be curious, informed, and willing to engage with it. That's what AIQ is all about—building the knowledge and skills to not just survive in an AI-powered world, but to thrive in it.
So what’s your move? Sit on the sidelines, or be in the game? And you can start small: play with free tools, ask dumb questions, read shit like this. Use it to make your job easier, launch that side hustle, switch careers before the rug gets pulled from under you, or just stay relevant in a world that's shifting under our feet faster than ever.
Because the future isn't us vs. the machines. It's us with the machines—steering them, profiting from them, and making damn sure they don't outgrow our ability to keep them in check. Your AIQ is your edge. Don't sleep on it.
