AI

How did artificial intelligence go from science fiction to your phone almost overnight? In this episode of Five Minute Gist, we explain AI: what it really is, and how a 2017 breakthrough, powerful new chips and the launch of ChatGPT made it take off so quickly. We look at the real benefits, from saving time on everyday tasks to a Nobel Prize-winning AI that cracked a 50-year-old science puzzle. We break down the downsides, including made-up answers, deepfakes, job worries and energy use, plus the AI bubble and the hundreds of billions of dollars being spent on data centers. Finally, we ask the big questions: could AI ever become self-aware, and where does it go from here?

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