What is Artificial Intelligence?

Welcome to our first section: What is AI?

AI stands for Artificial Intelligence. But what does that actually mean for you?

Imagine you had an assistant – not one made of flesh and blood, but one that lives inside a computer. This assistant can help you with everyday tasks: it manages your calendar, informs you about the weather or plays your favourite songs whenever you want.

Although this assistant is not a human, it seems intelligent. It understands what you say and can respond to it. That is the basic principle of AI.

AI is a field of computer science that enables machines to carry out tasks that normally require human intelligence. These include recognising speech, making decisions or predicting outcomes based on data.

Put simply: AI gives computers the ability to perform tasks that we would normally describe as “intelligent” when humans do them.

In this course, you will get to know the various aspects and applications of AI in more detail. But first, it is important to understand that AI is not just an idea from science fiction films. It has long been part of our everyday lives and influences the way we do things.

In the next section, we will look at the history of AI. But before we do, think about this: where in your everyday life have you already come into contact with AI? You might be surprised how often AI already plays a role in your life.