Chakshu Arora | Food for thought, Beyond the NOISE.

Intro

Over the last few weeks, many discussions at the dinner table with our kids have focused on hackers. Their school & football club app were recently hacked. A few times on artificial intelligence, among other topics. This was followed by lots of news on AI on news and social media which they happened to watch.

Last week before tucking kids to bed, my 8 year old suddenly asked
‘What is an AI agent?’

Hearing this question my smart father instinct and frontal lobe sprang into action :). Being working in tech field I wanted to give the smartest answer to them.
I thought for few moments, compiling the answer in my brain and then started mumbling out the ‘Smartest answer’. If I remember, I only uttered the most non kid-friendly mumbo jumbo. I mentioned Machine learning, Large learning models, Natural learning process and what not. Utter BS.

Verse

I am 100% sure they couldn’t understand a thing i said :). later that evening, i kept thinking how can i gave a simplified and direct explanation to them.

So next evening, I came prepared on dinner table. Here is how I explained this to my 8 year old son. This article is an outcome of that & how the conversation went. I hope you find this useful and can help you explain AI Agents to your kiddos :)

Chorus

I started by quickly explaining Artificial Intelligence (AI).

It’s like a super-smart computer program that can learn and make decisions. Imagine a robot that can play games, answer questions, or even help with your homework. AI is the technology that makes these robots smart.

If AI is the raw brain power that a computer has, it is not useful without the right instruction. A task is also necessary for the brain power to be useful.

AI is intelligence in the computer. An AI agent is a person who can use that intelligence to accomplish tasks.
Its like a genie at your disposal who can listen, understand, think and get things done for you.

AI agents can not only get things done. They can also learn from past mistakes or experiences, just like humans do. For example, when you get your homework corrected at school, AI agents can learn similarly. They will not make the same mistakes again.

Over past few years, they have been using Siri, Alexa, and Google Home for many smart home automation’s. They have been learning some block programming, so I could sense they were understanding. i kept going :).

I used another analogy. It involves us leaving kids with a baby sitter Vs Programmers giving instructions to AI agents to get things done.

Parents going for dinner..	Programmers can write…
..Leaving a set of instructions…	…Detailed set of instructions by writing in interface or saying to home assistant…
…For babysitter…	…for AI Agents…
..who can read, understand..	…who can listen, understand, think..
….& look after kids the right way.	..& get the task done the right way.

In nutshell, AI agents work by

1. Listening: They first listen to your command. For example, when you say, “Hey google, what’s the weather today?”
   
2. Understanding: They then try to understand what you mean. This involves processing your words and figuring out the context.
   
3. Responding: Finally, they respond with the information or action you requested. google might say, “It’s cold and -13’c degrees today.”

These agents make our lives easier by handling tasks that we might find boring or time-consuming.

Bridge

Here are some questions my kids asked.

Q: Can AI take care of my cat if i leave instructions? or give him bath or food when we are not home.
A: I couldn’t stop laughing but yes one day. quite soon.

Q: Are AI agents safe ? Can they do harms to humans? like last month their school app was hacked.
A: Well that’s the question whole humanity is thinking about right now. But yes, as long as they are used responsibly.

Outro

I am still not sure if they totally understood what AI agents are. However, they know much more than the night before. This is enough for the brain juices to get flowing.

Explaining AI agents to my kids helped me understand the importance of breaking down complex topics into simple terms.

It’s so fascinating to see how curious kids are about technology. They won’t understand the turning point humanity is standing on now. Decisions taken now can have positive on adverse impact on their generations and many to come.

I really hope this article helps you understand AI agents better. Now you are better prepared when your kids ask this question.

What other things you would add to this explanation of AI agents?

//Until next time.
Chakshu Arora.
#h