AI for Beginners: Learn What AI Is and How It Works
AI works by learning from data, finding patterns, and generating outputs. It uses algorithms—step-by-step rules that tell the computer how to process information.
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2025-11-12 13:20 GMT
Every time we have a problem, we are unsure of something, we are unable to grasp any information, whether it is personal or work related. We are just one click away from AI Tools such as ChatGPT or Gemini. That means whether we have to solve our relationship problems, friendship misunderstandings, generation gap issues or work related stuff in schools, universities or offices, we tend to lean towards AI tools to give us a clear understanding of our problems and a way to find a clear path.
AI even helps us with many daily and creative activities as well such as scheduling our time, recommending movies, songs, and helping us create simple music, art, or games. Apart from helping us, they can write anything, make close to accurate pictures, make movies by a written prompt, make videos, sing, listen, and react to our commands.
So the question arises, how do these AI tools actually work.
To explore this further let's go back to basics, and understand Artificial Intelligence first.
What is Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence or AI is a branch of computer science that focuses on creating machines or software that can think (process information), learn (recognise patterns) and solve problems in ways that resemble human intelligence.
It's about teaching a computer to learn from information, make decisions, and solve problems on its own, without following any fixed instructions.
AI enables computers to perform tasks that normally require human understanding, such as understanding language, recognizing images or sounds, making decisions or predictions, or learning from data from experience (data).
For example, when YouTube or Instagram shows you content based on your interests, or when your Google Assistant or Siri recognises your work. That's AI at work. These systems study your data such as your viewing history and speech patterns, and use it to make smart guesses.
But how does AI work?
AI works by learning from data, finding patterns, and generating outputs. It uses algorithms—step-by-step rules that tell the computer how to process information.
Again, the question arises how does it happen.
Let's understand this by an example. Suppose you have to write an essay or email to your teacher, but you are not sure where.
Learning: AI is trained using a large amount of dataset containing text from books, articles, and websites to learn the statistical patterns of human language.
Example: ChatGPT has read or analysed millions of text documents including emails, books, articles, and essays, to learn how language works, and what makes a clear writing format.
Thinking (Predicting/Generating): After training, AI uses what to generate outputs or make predictions based on patterns in the data. (making decisions)
Example: When you ask Chatgpt to write an essay or an email, it predicts what words or sentences should come next based on the patterns it learned. It does not think like a human, but it can generate a text that makes sense and fits your requirement.
Improving: The more data it gets, the better it becomes at making accurate predictions or giving helpful answers.
Example: Through updates and retraining by developers who use aggregated data and feedback from users, ChatGPT gets better at giving accurate, helpful and polite responses. Some other examples in our daily lives where AI helps us with regular tasks are grammar and spell checker like Grammarly, text predictions on smart phones and Virtual assistants like Siri sending messages for you.
Categories
Based on the capabilities of AI can be categorised into two types it:
Narrow AI and General AI
Narrow AI (or Weak AI): This AI is designed to perform a specific task or a limited set of tasks. It is generally specialised and is very good at what it is trained to do but it works within a defined boundary and can't do anything beyond it. Such as:
Spam filters: they can detect spam but cannot recommend movies.
ChatGPT: It can write essays or emails but cannot drive a car
Siri or Alexa: It can respond to voice commands questions or set reminders, but can’t write a book on its own.
General AI (Strong AI): It is an AI that can perform any intellectual task that a human can do, across multiple domains. It can learn, reason, and solve problems in different areas but it is not limited to a single task.
However, General AI does not exist yet, it's mostly a concept in research and science fiction.
Let's take a hypothetical example to understand it: An AI that could write essays, drive cars, play chess, learn new skills, and hold meaningful conversations, all without specific task performing.
Now that we understand how AI learns and makes decisions, let’s look at how this knowledge is used in tools we interact with daily.
What are AI Tools
AI tools are software programs or applications that use Artificial Intelligence to perform tasks in a way that is similar to human intelligence, such as reasoning, language understanding, and decision-making.
They run on apps or online platforms, but they are not physical robots.
Here’s a closer look:
Since AI provides the intelligent component of the software, it allows AI tools to think (analyze information), learn (recognize patterns), and make data-based decisions — though not in a truly human way.
The AI tools can process information quickly and can be highly accurate in specific tasks, but their performance depends on the quality of their training data.
AI tools are designed to make tasks easier and faster. It can help in problem solving and decision making skills, such as writing an essay, translating a text and recommending a product.
AI tools like ChatGPT, self-driving cars, and recommendation systems work by collecting and learning from large amounts of data using technologies such as Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, and Computer Vision.
These technologies allow AI tools to understand language, recognize patterns, analyze images and videos, make predictions, perform tasks, and continuously improve over time, enabling them to interact intelligently with the world.
Let's see how AI tools actually work:
1. Collecting Data: AI tools need numerous examples to learn from. These examples could be text, images, audios, videos or numbers. The more data they get, the better they become at recognizing patterns and making decisions.
For example: ChatGPT was trained on millions of text documents to learn how humans write and speak.Machine Learning: It uses Machine Learning, a method that allows AI to learn from data and improve over time, without being explicitly programmed for every task.
2. Machine learning: It is like teaching a computer numerous examples, so it can recognise patterns and make predictions accordingly.For example, Netflix recommended movies based on what you have watched before.
3. Natural Language Processing (NLP): It is a method which helps AI to understand, learn, interpret and generate human language, i.e., It's just like NLP helps computers read, write and talk like humans.
For example: ChatGPT answering questions or Google Translate translating sentences.
4. Computer Vision (CV): It is a method that helps AI see and understand images or videos, i.e., It lets computers recognize the objects, faces , movement in pictures and videos.
For example: Self-driving cars detecting pedestrians or AI apps identifying plants from photos.
5. Prediction / Decision-Making: Then, AI uses everything it has learned to perform tasks, make predictions and provide solutions, i,e; It turns its knowledge into useful outputs for humans.
For example: Spam filters predicting which emails are junk, or a recommendation engine suggesting products.
6. Continuous Learning / Improvement: Some AI systems continuously learn from new data, while others like ChatGPT, are updated periodically through new training versions created by developers.
For Example: AI music recommendations improve based on your listening history; ChatGPT improves responses with updates and user feedback.
Artificial Intelligence has revolutionized how we think, work, and interact with technology. From writing emails to driving cars, AI tools are helping us accomplish tasks faster and with greater efficiency. However, it’s essential to remember that AI doesn’t truly “understand” or “think” like humans — it operates based on data patterns and programmed algorithms. The quality of its output depends on the information it learns from and the guidance provided by people.
As AI continues to evolve, its role in education, workplaces, and everyday life will only grow. The real challenge lies in how responsibly we use it — as a tool to assist human creativity and judgment, not replace them.