By Charly SHELTON

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a term that gets thrown around a lot these days, often with a mix of excitement, curiosity and, for some, a bit of hesitation. Depending on who you ask, AI is either the best thing to happen to modern technology since the internet or it’s the dawn of an inevitable robot uprising. But what is it really? And more importantly, what does AI mean for the average person – those who aren’t working in research labs or sitting behind massive server banks but instead just trying to write an email, plan a budget or find a better way to organize a busy schedule?

In the simplest terms, AI is a computer program designed to think and reason like a human, or at least as close as we can approximate, using code and algorithms. 

It’s not magic. It’s not a sentient being with its own ambitions. It’s not HAL 9000 from “2001: A Space Odyssey” waiting for the perfect moment to refuse to open the pod bay doors. What AI actually is – and what it’s becoming more useful for every day – is a tool. It is a powerful, adaptable tool that takes human capabilities and makes them better, faster and more efficient.

Right now, AI is being used in ways that people interact with daily, whether they realize it or not. Virtual assistants like Siri and Alexa use AI to process spoken requests and provide answers. Search engines like Google have AI-driven ranking systems to show the most relevant results. Even Netflix and Spotify recommendations employ AI, learning from user habits to suggest what they might enjoy next.

But the real revolution in AI is happening in text and content generation. Platforms like ChatGPT, Claude and others can write essays, summarize documents, generate creative fiction or even help debug code. These models work by predicting what words logically follow others, forming coherent responses based on massive amounts of pre-existing text data. And it’s not just for tech insiders – these AI tools are available to anyone with an internet connection.

Of course, AI isn’t perfect. It doesn’t think the way a human does, even if it can mimic human reasoning patterns. It makes mistakes. It needs human guidance, just like any other tool. A hammer in the wrong hands can do damage but in the right hands it builds houses. AI is no different – it all comes down to how we use it.

In recent years, the ever-quickening advancements in AI have led to both excitement and concern among experts. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, holds a positive perspective, seeing AI as a tool that can enhance human capabilities and lead to unprecedented shared prosperity. In his now famous blog post, titled “The Intelligence Age,” Altman discusses the potential of AI to revolutionize various sectors and improve quality of life. He acknowledges the challenges and risks associated with AI but remains confident that, with proper guidance and regulation, AI can be a force for good.

“Technology brought us from the Stone Age to the Agricultural Age and then to the Industrial Age,” Altman wrote in his blog post. “From here, the path to the Intelligence Age is paved with compute, energy and human will.”

At its core, AI is modeled on human learning and reasoning. It’s designed to process information, recognize patterns and provide output in a way that mimics how we think. Geoffrey Hinton, a pioneer in the field often referred to as the “Godfather of AI,” spoke at last summer’s Ai4 Conference on the learning patterns of the large language models that power the AI that is so prevalent in today’s world.

“People say, ‘These language models are totally different from us.’ The little language model I introduced in 1985 wasn’t introduced as a technology for doing language. It was introduced as a theory of how people learn what words mean,” Hinton said. “So actually, the best model we have of how people understand language is these large language models.”

AI serves as both a valuable tool and a powerful ally – while not infallible, it is remarkably intelligent. If someone needed assistance with coding, s/he would likely turn to a knowledgeable friend in the field for troubleshooting. When seeking financial advice, a trusted expert at a bank would be consulted for guidance. Similarly, if someone needed an article written but lacked the skill or time to craft it themselves, s/he might rely on a seasoned journalist friend, maybe one who works for a fantastic local paper just north of Glendale, to write it based on a short summary. In much the same way, AI provides accessible and efficient support across all these domains and more, enhancing human capabilities through its advanced knowledge and reasoning patterns.

And that’s what happened here. This article was written by AI, primarily using prompts given by the author. A specifically trained AI model was fed articles in the style of Charly Shelton, learning the structure and tone of the work. Then, with just a few prompts, it generated this article. And if you’re being honest with yourself – did you realize it was AI until just now?

That’s what AI is about. It’s not replacing humans but making human capabilities better, faster and more accessible. It’s a tool that, when used wisely, has the potential to make humanity better than it has ever been before.

But, like any tool, how it is used matters. That’s where the real conversation begins. Over the next few weeks, CV Weekly is going to take a deeper look at AI – how it’s being used in unexpected ways and how different industries are navigating its impact. We’ll explore how JPL and NASA are integrating AI into the workflow of its workers to advance space exploration, and how school districts, like Glendale Unified, are adapting to AI’s presence in education – whether that means combating misuse or embracing it as a learning tool.

AI is here to stay and, as it evolves so do the questions and possibilities surrounding it. So let’s keep this conversation going – because understanding AI isn’t just about keeping up with technology: it’s about shaping the way we use it to move forward.