Beginner · module B1

Introduction to Artificial Intelligence

By the end: Explain in their own words what AI is, tell AI apart from ordinary automation, and describe how AI began and where it stands today

Covers: What AI is, what it is not, its types, its history, and why it matters
Contents: 6 chapters, 20 topics
Time: About 3 hours
Level: Beginner
Your progress: 0 / 20

Chapter 1 Understanding Intelligence

1.1
What Is Intelligence?
The abilities that make us intelligent: learning, reasoning, understanding language, perceiving and solving problems
Interactive: sort everyday tasks by the ability each one needs
8 min Read Activity
1.2
Natural and Artificial Intelligence
Intelligence in people and animals compared with intelligence built into machines
Discussion: how a person and a phone each recognise a face
8 min Read Activity

2.1
What Is Artificial Intelligence?
A clear definition of AI and the signs that a system uses it
Interactive game: AI or not AI?
12 min Read Activity
2.2
Definitions of AI by Its Pioneers
How Turing, McCarthy and modern textbooks describe AI, and the four ways of looking at it
Interactive: match each definition to its author
10 min Read Activity
2.3
Automation and Artificial Intelligence
Machines that follow fixed instructions compared with machines that learn from examples
Card sort: fixed rule or learned behaviour?
10 min Read Activity
2.4
Characteristics of an AI System
Perceiving, learning, reasoning, acting and improving, with inputs and outputs
Interactive: label the parts of a smart speaker
8 min Read Activity

3.1
How Humans and Machines Learn
Learning from experience and senses compared with learning from data and examples
Unplugged: teach a partner a new word, then list what a machine would need
8 min Read Activity
3.2
Strengths of Humans and Strengths of AI
Speed, scale and consistency compared with common sense, empathy, creativity and judgement
Scenario cards: human, AI or a team?
8 min Read Activity
3.3
Human and AI Collaboration
Why people and AI work best together, with a person staying responsible
Interactive: assign each step of a hospital task to a person or an AI
6 min Read Activity

4.1
Narrow, General and Super AI
Types of AI by capability, and why only narrow AI exists today
Interactive: classify well-known AI systems
10 min Read Activity
4.2
Types of AI by Functionality
Reactive machines, limited memory, theory of mind and self-aware AI
Quiz game: which type is it?
8 min Read Activity
4.3
AI, Machine Learning and Deep Learning
How the three fit inside each other, and where generative AI belongs
Interactive: drag systems into the right circle
8 min Read Activity

5.1
The Turing Test
Alan Turing's question "Can machines think?" and the imitation game
Interactive: judge whether each reply came from a person or a machine
8 min Read Activity
5.2
The Dartmouth Workshop and Early AI
The 1956 workshop that named the field, and the first AI programs
Interactive timeline: place the early milestones in order
8 min Read Activity
5.3
AI Winters and Revivals
Why interest in AI collapsed twice and how it returned
Discussion: promise compared with result
6 min Read Activity
5.4
From Deep Learning to Generative AI
The image-recognition breakthrough of 2012, AlphaGo, and the arrival of chatbots
Interactive: build the AI timeline from 1950 to today
8 min Read Activity

6.1
Why AI Is Needed
Problems too large, fast or repetitive for people alone, such as sorting millions of images
Interactive: find the tasks that are too big for people alone
6 min Read Activity
6.2
Facts and Myths About AI
Common beliefs about robots, feelings, accuracy and jobs, and what is actually true
Quiz: fact or myth?
8 min Read Activity
6.3
Why Everyone Should Understand AI
Using AI wisely, recognising misuse, and preparing for the future
Reflection journal: one way AI affects my life
5 min Read Activity
6.4
Module Review and Assessment
Recap of the module with a scored quiz
Module quiz with explanations
10 min Read Activity