And now, it's time for Who Smarted?
Psst, hey, smarty pants, it's me, the trusty narrator, aka the extremely busy trusty narrator.
Right now I'm at Who Smarted headquarters and let's just say my to-do list looks like the menu at a diner.
Oh, so many choices.
Here's just a partial list.
I have to fill my brain with smarty facts.
Learn more smarty facts, read and answer messages and emails from smarty pants all over the world, which I love.
Please keep writing to me.
I have to record Who Smarted episodes, plus shoutouts.
And that's just the stuff I have to do for Who Smarted.
I also have to buy my grandma a birthday present.
I could use a new meatcake pan.
Plus, I have to plan her party, send out invites, buy party favors and pick up my aunt from the airport.
That is a lot.
How am I going to do it all?
Sounds like you need an assistant.
Allow me to introduce myself.
I am Smart GPT.
Oh, hello, smart GPT.
Wait, are you one of those AI assistants like Apple Theory and Amazon's Alexa?
I am, only I'm much smarter.
I can perform many tasks, including manage your calendar, make calls, send emails, play music and podcasts, provide directions, conduct internet searches, set alarms, create lists, translate languages, perform calculations.
Make an online purchase of a meatcake pan for grandma.
Send out party invitations and answer all the Smarty Pants questions, comments, and emails.
Wow, and I thought I was busy.
SmartGPT.
I think I'd like your help on all of that, except answering the Smarty Pants questions and comments.
That needs to come from me.
But I could use your help answering questions about AI, such as, what is AI and how does it work?
Is AI smarter than humans?
And is AI helpful or harmful?
Excellent queries, Smarty Pants.
SmartGPT is here to assist.
Would you like me to answer your questions, or would you like me to play the theme song first?
Um, Smarty Pants, what do you say?
Uh-huh.
The Smarty Pants have spoken, and they want to hear the theme song.
So hit the music so we can take a big whiff of science, history, and the future on... Who's Smarted?
Who's Smarted?
Who's smart?
Is it you?
Is it me?
Is it science?
Or history?
Listen up, everyone.
We make smarting lots of fun on Who's Smarted.
Okay, smarty pants, let's start with a super basic question.
What does AI stand for?
Is it A, alien intelligence?
B, artificial intelligence?
Or C, animatronic iguanas?
The answer is... B, AI stands for B, artificial intelligence.
A field of computer science focused on creating systems such as computers or robots, and software that can think learn, understand and solve problems.
Hmm.
Thinking learning, understanding and solving problems is what the smarty pants listening do all the time.
That's because they have human intelligence.
But AI is not the same as human intelligence, because machines are doing the thinking and machines don't think in the same way as humans.
Correct, trusty narrator.
Artificial intelligence is a technology that attempts to think like humans, and it's quickly advancing.
Many different fields use AI, including manufacturing healthcare education entertainment, transportation and even agriculture.
You mean like farming?
Yes, even farming.
Old MacDonald had a farm.
AI, AI-o!
Wow, AI is everywhere!
It sure is.
And the kicker is many services you and the Smart Eye Pants use, like YouTube, Netflix and other streaming services, social media, online shopping and internet search engines like Google, all use AI to recommend what you might like to see next.
Smarty Pants, do you know what that is called?
Is it A, the algorithm, B, the AI's got rhythm, or C, you can call me AI?
The answer is A, the algorithm.
Algorithms use your past choices to help direct you to future choices, which is why it's so easy to spend an hour straight watching random YouTube videos.
In addition, there are also AI chatbots that are designed to understand and answer humans' questions or prompts.
For example, there's like OpenAI's ChatGPT.
Hello, Chet Nickerson here.
Did someone have a question for me?
Uh, hey Chet, I don't think so.
We're talking about AI and ChatGPT.
Oh, sorry.
I thought you said ChetGPT.
My bad.
By the way, as I was saying, smartphones use AI too for maps and directions, voice assistants like Siri, camera filters, and if you've ever seen someone hold a phone to their face to unlock it, that is an AI feature called facial recognition.
Smarty pants may even be playing with AI without realizing it.
Some popular video games like Minecraft and Fortnite use AI.
Whoa.
Game developers use AI to create challenges for gameplay and to generate NPCs, which stands for non-playable characters or bots that you interact with or play against.
Look at that, smarty pants.
Chances are you were using AI without even realizing it.
How cool is that?
But guess what?
It gets even cooler.
Come on, let's take an even closer look.
Smarty Pants, I just put on my virtual reality smart e-goggles and now we're inside a video game.
Welcome to AI Awakenings, a game simulation created by me, your AI assistant, SmartGPT.
Your mission, power up by learning as much as we can about artificial intelligence.
Gotcha.
Okay, Smarty Pants.
It looks like we need to answer questions about AI in order to power up and win the game.
Okay, smarty pants, here comes our first question.
When did the field of AI begin?
Hmm, I'd assume it was fairly recent, right?
Or maybe not?
Oh wait, we get a few choices.
Okay, did AI first begin in A, the 1950s, B, in the 1970s, or C, the 1990s?
What do you think?
While AI seems like a relatively new concept, the answer actually is A, the 1950s.
Artificial intelligence was first studied in the 1950s.
Researchers like Alan Turing, a British mathematician and World War II codebreaker, designed a test to determine if a machine could be as smart as a human.
It was called the Turing Test, which no computer has completely passed yet.
And in 1956 a bunch of researchers met at Dartmouth College to brainstorm how to create machines that could think like humans.
One of them, John McCarthy, an American computer scientist, came up with the term artificial intelligence.
However, AI didn't really take off until the 1990s when computers became more advanced.
So, SmartGPT, how did computers get so smart?
And how exactly does AI work?
Smartypants, do you know?
Yeah, me neither.
Well trusty first computer scientists, including software engineers, program or train an AI system with tons of data or information.
Data can be words, numbers, images, or even a voice.
When you play a video game, your score, level, and the coins you collect are data.
The more data or information AI has, the smarter it gets.
Sounds like a smarty pants listening to Who Smarted?
Who Smarted?
Okay, so what does AI do with all that data?
Computer scientists create algorithms.
Ah, we just talked about those before.
Remember, smarty pants?
To AI algorithms are a set of instructions, like a recipe, that tells AI systems how to understand the data, so AI can make predictions, complete tasks or solve problems.
So, in other words, AI works by processing lots of data or information through algorithms or sets of instructions.
Ooh, it sounds like we just powered up in the game, Smarty Pants.
Well done.
Okay, next question.
Do people enter the data that help AI get smarter?
Yes, but not always.
Smarty Pants, true or false?
There is a type of AI called machine learning, where AI can learn from data on its own, without being programmed what to do.
The answer is true.
Machine learning allows computers to learn and improve without being explicitly programmed.
Again, it uses algorithms to analyze data, make predictions and get smarter with each task it completes.
Whoa.
So AI is always learning and getting smarter.
Again, just like the smarty pants.
Speaking of, true or false?
An AI system won the TV trivia game Jeopardy, beating two human Jeopardy champions.
And the answer is true.
In 2011 Watson, an AI system developed by the tech company IBM, won the game show Jeopardy against human players.
Watson uses different AI technologies, such as machine learning, data analysis, natural language processing, which allows it to analyze and understand human language, and cognitive computing, which simulates how humans process information and make decisions.
Oh, that sounds like a very smarty-pants version of AI.
But that was just the beginning.
In 2016 AlphaGo, an AI developed by Google's DeepMind, defeated Lee Sedol, a world champion in the board game Go.
And in 1997 DeepBlue, another AI system from IBM, defeated the world chess champion Garry Kasparov in a six-game match.
Check and mate.
Wow.
Sounds like AI is pretty good at playing games.
But is AI as smart or even smarter than humans?
That is a question everyone asks me.
And the answer is Coming right up after this quick break and a word from our sponsors is how it adapts to each child's pace.
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As the trusty narrator, I've taken the smarty pants on countless adventures.
I'll do anything for the fans.
But off mic, I prefer to keep my adventures in the safe space of my own backyard.
However, even a homebody like me can't avoid the unexpected chaos that comes with family life.
Take last week, for example.
My niece was staying with me when she came down with a nasty cold in the middle of the night.
I couldn't leave her alone to get medicine, and that's when I remembered DoorDash is there for you whatever you need, whenever you need it.
With a few taps on my phone, I had cough syrup and tissues delivered right to my door.
DoorDash saved the night, and my niece was back to her energetic self in no time.
Oh, and did I order a little ice cream for myself?
Yes, I did.
And DoorDash brought it right to my door.
So while I may not be the biggest fan of real-life adventures, I'm grateful that DoorDash is always there to help me navigate life's little emergencies.
When life happens, get a little order delivered with DoorDash.
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Now back to Who Smarted?
Jack and mate.
Ah, now I just lost to a computer in chess.
But that's not super impressive because I am certainly no chess champion.
But SmartGPT, are you and other AI systems smarter than humans?
The answer is not yet.
AI can process large amounts of data in ways that humans cannot.
Sometimes computers can search databases, recognize patterns and do calculations much faster than humans.
But AI is designed to be good at only a specific task and it's only as smart as the data or information it is given.
If the data or information isn't correct, the AI system won't be so smart.
Not to mention, humans have and use lots of smarty skills that computers don't have.
Things like imagination and creativity.
Humans also have emotion and empathy, which is feelings for others.
And the very human values of understanding what's right and wrong.
And that is correct.
AI does not have all those human smarts.
But... But?
But what?
But researchers are hoping to create general artificial intelligence that would be capable of smarting more like a human can.
And they are researching emotional AI, which could respond to human emotions, and creative AI to create art.
There is already a type of AI called generative AI or Gen AI that can generate or make new data from the data you give it.
You can ask Gen AI to draw a picture, write a story or a song.
Would you like to hear my AI generated version of the Who Smarted theme?
Uh, sure.
Why not?
Got questions, big or small?
Who's discovering it all?
Is it science?
Is it art?
We're here to make you super smart.
Who's smart and could it be?
Was it you?
Was it me?
Wow.
That was something.
But not terrible.
Just different.
What do you think, smarty pants?
I know.
My AI-generated song may not be as fire as a human-written song.
Let's call it a work in progress.
But AI has gotten good at helping humans in a lot of ways.
AI can be used to help people do their work faster and brainstorm new ideas.
It can help doctors detect diseases in patients and improve their care.
In schools, AI can assist teachers to help their students learn.
And there are a lot of new jobs in the field of AI, so it can become a career for students who love STEM subjects like science technology, engineering and math.
That sounds great.
But is there a dark side to AI?
I know some people are afraid the computers may take over the world and make us humans work for them.
Well, trustee, there are always risks with new technology and innovation.
AI needs to know a lot about us in order to work well and get smarter.
So it is important you keep your personal data safe and private.
AI can also create fake videos called deep fakes or news that seems real but isn't.
This can trick people into believing something that isn't true.
Sometimes AI gets confused or just makes things up when it doesn't know the answer to something.
This can cause people to spread misinformation or get a bad grade on their essay.
And while AI may help some people do their jobs, in other cases AI may take away some jobs that people do.
I see.
If we always rely on AI to make every decision for us, we might forget how to be smarty pants and think for ourselves and solve problems on our own.
That's why it's great we powered up our AI knowledge so we can use it wisely.
Okay, now I need to get out of this game and start planning my grandma's birthday party.
Trusty, I made reservations at your grandma's favorite restaurant.
I sent out the invites, ordered the meatcake pan, and bought some party hats and favors.
Amazing!
But wait, I still have to pick up my aunt from the airport.
No worries, trustee.
Chet GPT is on the case.
I've got your aunt here with me in the Nickerson News Chopper.
Huh, what do you know?
AI and Chet to the rescue.
I think we're all going to have a very bright future together.
A big shout out to super smarty fan Melody and Melody's dad Nick, who emailed us to say they love Who Smarted and they especially enjoy the trusty narrator.
Aw, thanks, you guys.
They also said an episode that caused a lot of debate in their home was the cake versus pie episode.
You know what?
Between cakes, pies, and who's smarted, you can't lose.
This episode, AI, was written by Leanne French and voiced by Adam Tex-Davis.
Adam Tex-Davis using artificial intelligence and Jerry Colbert.
Technical direction and sound design by Josh Hahn.
Our associate producer is Max Hal-Kamasky.
The theme song is by Brian Suarez, with lyrics written and performed by Adam Tex-Davis.
Who Smarted was created and produced by Adam Tex-Davis and Jerry Colbert.
This has been an Atomic Audio production.
