Google and Oxford create ‘The A to Z of AI’ explainer

As machine learning and artificial intelligence usage proliferates in everyday products, there have been many attempts to make it easier to understand. The latest explainer comes from Google and the Oxford Internet Institute with “The A to Z of AI.”

There’s a great deal of information out there on AI, but it’s not always easy to distinguish fact from fiction or root out entry-level introductions among the educational material. ‘The A-Z of AI’ is a beginner’s guide, designed to help anyone get their bearings with a complex topic.

Aimed at providing “entry-level explanations,” Google’s People + AI Research team partnered with the Oxford Internet Institute at the University of Oxford on a field that’s closely associated with science fiction by most people. With increased usage, the two note how users are “becoming increasingly interested in developing their understanding of what AI is, how it works.”

The team carefully balanced their selections across a spectrum of technical understanding, production techniques, use cases, societal implications and ethical considerations.

Each entry is roughly the length of a long paragraph and accompanied by numerous graphics. Written by Google’s resident technical and feature writers, it’s all very palatable. The selected topics are considered “central to understanding AI and its role in the world today.”

There are 26 explanations and you can browse each card A-Z. Other groupings include AI fundamentals, making AI, society & AI, and using AI. Notable topics explain bias, ethics, and fakes, while the list also touches on GANs, neural networks, and quantum computing.

The AI explainer from Google and Oxford will be “refreshed periodically, as new technologies come into play and existing technologies evolve.”