With the increasing presence of AI in various aspects of our lives, including the well-known ChatGPT, it’s becoming more important than ever to understand the basics of this technology. Despite the abundance of information available on AI, it can be challenging to separate fact from fiction or to find clear explanations that are accessible to everyone.

To address this, Google and we have collaborated to produce The A to Z of AI, a collection of concise and easy-to-follow explanations that cover everything from what AI is to how it’s transforming the world we live in.

Here are a few things you might learn:

1. AI is already in our everyday lives

You’ve probably interacted with AI without even realizing it. Al has helped you if you searched for a specific image in Google Photos, asked a smart speaker about the weather or was rerouted by your car’s navigation system. Those examples might feel obvious, but there are many other ways it plays a role in your life you might not realize. AI is also helping solve some bigger, global challenges. For example, there are apps that use AI to help farmers identify issues with crops. And there are now systems that can examine citywide traffic information in real time to help people efficiently plan their driving routes.

2. People are using AI to help tackle the global climate crisis

AI offers us the ability to process large volumes of data and uncover patterns—an invaluable aid when it comes to climate change. Al-powered systems help people regulate the amount of energy they use by turning off the heating and lights when they leave the house. AI models glacier melt and predict rising sea levels so effectively that it enables action to be taken.

Researchers are also considering the environmental impact of data centers and Al computing itself by exploring how to develop more energy-efficient systems and infrastructures.

3. AI learns from examples in the real world

Just as a child learns through examples, the same is true of machine learning algorithms. And that’s what datasets are: large collections of examples, like weather data, photos or music, that we can use to train AI. Due to their scale and complexity (think of a dataset made up of extensive maps covering the whole of the known solar system), datasets can be very challenging to build and refine. For this reason, AI design teams often share datasets for the benefit of the wider scientific community, making it easier to collaborate and build on each other’s research.

4. Al can help our efforts to spot deepfakes

“Deepfakes” are Al-generated images, speech, music, or videos that look real. They work by studying existing real-world imagery or audio, mapping them in detail, then manipulating them to create works of fiction that are disconcertingly true to life. However, there are often some telltale signs that distinguish them from reality; in a deep fake video, voices might sound a bit robotic, or characters may blink less or repeat their hand gestures. AI can help us spot these inconsistencies.

5. It’s impossible to teach AI what it means to be human

As smart as AI is (and will be), it won’t be able to understand everything that humans can. In fact, you could give an Al system all the data in the world and it still wouldn’t reflect, or understand, every human being on the planet. That’s because we’re complex, multidimensional characters that sit outside the data that machines use to make sense of things. Humans train and guide AI systems. And it’s up to each person to choose how they interact with Al systems and what information they feel comfortable sharing. You decide how much Al gets to learn about you.