Artificial intelligence (AI) is software that can do tasks that normally need human thinking, such as understanding language, recognising pictures or making predictions. You already use it when you unlock a phone with your face or get video suggestions.

How does it learn?

Modern AI learns from huge amounts of examples. A chatbot, for instance, studies enormous amounts of text and learns patterns in how language works. It then uses those patterns to write answers.

Common types of AI you will meet

• Chatbots that answer questions and write text.
• Image generators that create pictures from descriptions.
• Recommendation systems on YouTube, Instagram and shopping apps.
• Voice assistants like Google Assistant and Siri.

What AI is not

AI does not think or feel like a person, and it can be wrong while sounding sure. It is a tool that needs human judgement.

How to start

Open a free AI chat assistant and ask it to explain something you are studying or to draft a short email. Check its answers and keep private information out of your messages.