It’s all about prediction

Artificial Intelligence (AI) often seems like a complex, almost magical technology that’s reshaping our world. But when you break it down, AI is really just a sophisticated system of prediction.

It works by analysing data to find patterns and then making predictions based on those patterns. Whether it’s guessing the next word you’ll type, forecasting stock prices, or suggesting a movie on Netflix, AI uses past data to predict future outcomes.

It ‘learns’ by being trained on large sets of data. For example, if you want AI to recognise images of cats, you show it thousands of pictures of cats and other animals. Over time, (hopefully) the AI picks up on the features that make a cat a cat. After training, it can predict whether a new image is likely to be a cat based on what it has learned.

Whether it’s being used to predict your risk of a disease based on your medical history, market trends to inform investment decisions, what products you might buy next, or which shows or songs you’ll enjoy, in each case, AI is simply making an educated guess based on patterns in the data.

When we realise that AI is essentially a prediction tool, it becomes less intimidating and more understandable. It’s not a mystical force; it’s just a technology that helps us make better guesses about the future by learning from the past.