Technology 4
Algorithms, neural networks and artificial intelligence: how the technology you use every day works, explained from the ground up.
- The algorithm: what it really is (and why it's not a dirty word) An algorithm is a finite, precise sequence of steps to achieve a result: the definition covers a cooking recipe as much as Google's code. The word comes from the Persian mathematician al-Khwarizmi, who lived more than a thousand years ago. Today "the algorithm" has become the popular name for the systems that rank content on social media — which are algorithms, of a particular kind.
- Machine learning: what it is and how a machine learns Machine learning is the branch of artificial intelligence in which a piece of software, called a model, learns from data instead of following hand-written rules. Show it thousands of examples and it finds the patterns linking question and answer on its own: that's how it spots spam, recommends films, estimates prices. It's the technology behind almost all the AI you use daily.
- Neural networks: how they really work A neural network is a system of thousands of simple computing units connected in layers by millions (or billions) of weighted connections, loosely inspired by the brain's neurons. Every connection has an adjustable weight: during training the network tweaks the weights until the examples produce the right answers. With many layers it becomes deep learning, the technology behind image recognition, speech and large language models.
- Generative AI: what it is and how it works Generative AI is a technology that can create new content — text, images, audio, video, code — from a request written in natural language. It doesn't "copy" from an archive: it learned the patterns and rules of language by analyzing enormous amounts of data, and uses them to generate original answers, one word at a time.