What is AI or more specifically. What, is AI?

Can you answer the question? Before writing this article I couldn't. I'd heard buzzwords like "neural net, singularity, machine learning" etc... , but I didn't know. So I thought how does AI become AI? Is AI made by AI? or is it made by people in dimly lit basements trying to be billionaires? Is it a tool to create and enforce socialism? Is it from the mind of a supreme overlord that is trying to enslave the human race to do its bidding? Or, Is it the next evolution of humanity will it drive us to become more efficient cyborgs and eradicate every problem that comes with being human? Will AI make us smarter, dumber, faster, stronger? Will it solve world hunger, will it solve world wars?

If you want answers, read a different blog.

If you want my opinion which I guess you do since you're reading this, then all I can say is only time will tell. When I ask myself the question "What is AI" A few things come to mind. The first thing that comes up is. What is real intelligence? Descartes said "I think therefore I am". Buddha said that the concept of "I" comes from the ego, and that "there is no I". So according to Descartes you are real because you can think, and according to Buddha there is no you, and I believe them both. So again, if you're looking for answers you're looking in the wrong place, and maybe you should question why you're still reading this, but then maybe the fact that you can question why you are reading this means you are intelligent. Maybe it's sentience that denotes real vs artificial intelligence.

So, how does AI get the I in AI?

Well, to answer that question I turned to the closest thing publicly available that I could think of. In search of a real answer from the... thing itself. ChatGPT

ChatGPT, an AI language model by OpenAI

Fun Fact: You learn the same way.

During the pre-linguistic stage, babies are drawing from a wide range of sources. This could also be called data-collection, the time in which we gather communication information, at the same time as this is happening the baby is sleeping A Lot. During their sleep they are doing data pre-processing the brain is forming and information deemed to be relevant is being stored, things that made us happy and things that made us sad things that worked and got the response we wanted. All the other unnecessary information that we processed throughout the day is cast aside.

During the babbling stage babies are forming words, they are testing their vocal cords, and experimenting with what shapes make what sounds, they learn what will work to communicate and how to form words. This could be interpreted as training.

Evaluation begins when we are at the one to two-word stages. When our words are being used to influence those around us, we are again using the trial and error method, experimenting with our physical surroundings talking to animals, toys and people and babbling on and on like little scientists.

Finally, at the Deployment/Telegraphic stages, we see the outcome of our experiments. We begin to use inductive reasoning to create predictions about the world around us.

In closing,

I hope this blog post has done absolutely nothing for you but awaken a million questions. I hope you read this and thought wow that's amazing I wonder what else learns that way? I wonder what else Descartes said, or Buddha said. I hope you stopped reading and never even read the end of this post. But if you did I'm glad you're here thank you for making it all the way, there is no conclusion.