Finally, an AI Primer that makes it all make sense. And while AI may seem like a modern miracle, when viewed through the lens of the last 50 years of computing history, it may not be as surprising after all.
The stars in the AI sky have been aligning for decades, leading us precisely to this moment of explosive growth. Today, we have more data, better algorithms (hello transformers!), and more high-powered computers (thanks to the latest GPUs) than ever before. And the results, are well, pretty spectacular.
Key Sections 0:30 - The first chess-playing ‘machine?’ 1:50 - Today’s AI explosion: the convergence of 3 longer-standing trends 2:30 - Who this Primer is for 2:48 - What’s in the other videos in this Primer
Years ago, a big story made global headlines. A new machine was beating humans at chess.
And not just any humans, some of the brightest minds of the time. The machine? You might be
thinking of Deep Blue, IBM's AI that famously defeated a grandmaster in 1997. But actually,
this story is about a much, much older machine. The Mechanical Turk, an elaborate chess-playing
contraption invented in 1770. The Turk shook the world with its skill. It toured widely for 80
years, facing off with the likes of Napoleon and Benjamin Franklin. The Turk worked via an intricate
system of gears and levers, and one more thing housed secretly in the belly of the table,
a human chess master. So the Turk turned out to be a fraud, and the true dawn of artificial
intelligence was postponed for another two centuries. But the point here is that the
impulse to build machines with human-like capabilities traces back to the very beginnings
of the machine age itself. Today, even actual chess-playing machines like Deep Blue have become
old news. Every day lately, it seems that AI models accomplish a new, unbelievable feat.
And while they may seem too good to be true, we can confirm that these models are not
elaborate hoaxes. Actually, the modern AI miracle, when seen through the lens of the last 50 years of
computing history, may not be as surprising as it first seems. Experts will tell you that the stars
in the AI sky have been aligning for decades, leading us precisely to this moment of explosive
growth. Today's innovations are the result of three longer-standing trends converging at once.
One trend is the proliferation of data, more digital text and images than ever before.
The second is the advancement of computing algorithms which, using all this data,
can create so-called artificial intelligence. The third is the development of high-powered
computing hardware, machines that can actually run this data through these algorithms.
Still, for the most part, this change has happened fast. The topic is intimidating,
and many people don't know where to start. But it's time to change that. AI is not going away,
and top-performing professionals will need to really get this stuff at one or two layers
below the surface. That's why we created this primer, to help business professionals build a
This primer will get you fluent in AI in less than an hour,
starting with the basics and landing on a deeper understanding of gen-AI
and large language models like those powering ChatGPT. We'll cover how different AI models
work and how they're used, the different AI domains, and the trends to expect.
