A Simple Definition of AI a Kindergartener Can Grasp

A primer for the ordinary Joe

Chris Mielke, PMP

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Photo by Andrew Ebrahim on Unsplash

Silicon Valley needs to dumb AI down for the rest of us — we’re not rocket scientists.

As a twist, even the AI writing apps realize this. Take the app, Hemingway, for example. It sets the ideal reading level as sixth grade, the average American’s reading level. On top of this, most articles on AI are a virtual alphabet soup of acronyms.

But the techies think we can decipher what exactly an LLM is or why my AI hallucinates.

Talk dumb to me

I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed.

Despite my love of technology, I’m not a lab rat or a programmer, so I’m usually lost after the smartest people in the room start describing their work. If there’s a problem with what they’re working on — I’m not the one they want to ask for advice on how to fix it.

However, I need to understand what the team needs, so I ask them to explain what they are talking about to a five-year-old.

Strangely, it works — they dumb the incredibly technical thinking down me, and I gain a new piece of knowledge that I would have had to watch dozens of YouTube videos to comprehend. Plus, the team members usually respect me since I showed them a little bit of my…

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Chris Mielke, PMP

I write about technology, project management and Gen X retirement - three subjects I am passionate about. More of my writing: https://substack.com/@chrismielke