What AI Can (and Cannot) Do

AI can do some truly amazing things — but it also gets things wrong in funny or surprising ways. Let us look at both!

Things AI is brilliant at

• Spotting patterns in huge amounts of information — faster than any human
• Translating languages — Google Translate uses AI to translate over 100 languages
• Recognising images — AI can look at an X-ray and help doctors spot problems
• Playing games — AI has beaten the world champions at chess, Go, and even video games

Things AI struggles with

• Common sense — AI can fail at simple puzzles that a young child would solve easily
• Understanding feelings — AI cannot truly feel happy, sad, excited, or bored
• New situations — If something is very different from what it learned on, AI can get confused
• Making things up — AI sometimes confidently says wrong things (called hallucinations)

The key takeaway

AI is a powerful tool for specific jobs — but it is not magic, and it is definitely not perfect. The best results come from humans and AI working together!