What if I told you there was an easy way to understand how AI works, without a PhD or even a college degree for that matter? If that's for you, then keep reading.

AI is a term that changes with time, and the flavor-of-the-month: Large Language Models (LLMs), with ChatGPT being the most famous. You've probably heard about AI-powered this and AI-powered that—most of them use some form of LLM.

Meet Curious Chris! Chris lives in a mysterious room, where there's a door and a mail slot. Every so often, Chris receives a letter, but there's a catch—it's written entirely in Chinese! Now, Chris doesn't know Chinese, but they do have a book that contains detailed instructions on how to respond to each character. It's a guide that says, "If you see these characters, respond with these characters."

So, Chris follows the instructions, writes a response, and slips it back through the mail slot. This routine repeats with every new letter that arrives.

Here's the twist—on the other side of the door, native Chinese speakers have been writing those letters to Chris, believing they're conversing with someone fluent in Chinese! Fascinating, isn't it? This example is called the Chinese Room thought experiment.

Now, for the question: Does Chris understand understand the conversations? Well, the obvious answer is NO. And that's where the magic happens! It all comes down to the difference between "understanding" (the meaning) vs "instructions" (the patterns).

Just like Curious Chris, ChatGPT and AI like it are masters at mimicking patterns. They expertly arrange letters to create meaningful responses, yet they don't "know" the meaning behind what they're saying. They're incredibly intricate, no doubt, but that's all they do.

So the next time someone claims AI is all-powerful and going to takeover the world, just tell them: Chris doesn't know Chinese.