Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to computer programs able to carry out tasks that, until recently, required human intelligence: understanding language, recognising images, summarising a text, answering a question.
One myth to clear up straight away
AI is not a brain and it has no consciousness. It is a statistical system: it has analysed enormous quantities of text and images in order to predict what is most likely to come next. When ChatGPT writes a sentence, it picks, word after word, the most plausible continuation. Nothing magical — but spectacular results.
Three families worth knowing
- « Classic » AI: spam filters, Netflix recommendations, satnav. It has been around for decades.
- Generative AI: it creates brand-new content — text, images, audio, code. This is the revolution of the past few years (ChatGPT, Midjourney and others).
- AI agents: systems that chain actions together to achieve a goal (booking, researching, organising).
Why this matters to you
As a trainer in the making, your first job will be to reassure and clarify. Many people are afraid of AI because they misunderstand it. Being able to explain simply « what it is » and « what it is not » is your first skill.
Key takeaway: generative AI predicts plausible content from examples. Powerful, but fallible — hence the critical thinking we will cultivate throughout this course.