Chapter One

Once there is a simple understanding of the basic way AI works, the fear will disintegrate.

The small white cylinder kept its shape at the bottom of the shower. The warm water flowed directly on the essential oils steamer, as I waited to breathe in its calming peppermint aroma. Yet no matter how deeply I inhaled, I could detect no sweet smell.  Interestingly, the cylinder remained  undissolved. Was it a multiple-use disc, I wondered. That would certainly be a cost-effective product.

After my second aroma-less shower, I noticed that the cylinder still had its clear sealed packaging intact. That explained why the  aromatic disc had not immediately disintegrated under the warm water. It’s plastic coating kept its aroma locked inside. If I had not examined it, who knows how many showers I would have taken without the benefits of the oil disc’s aromatic contents.

In many ways, a coating of mystery surrounds much about artificial intelligence (AI). Until the outer coating is peeled away, AI’s power will remain locked inside.  However, once users gain a simple understanding of the way AI works, the fear and resistance will disintegrate, just like an essential oil shower disk. I hope to unwrap some of that coating in this section of the book.

The Growth of AI

Remember the Pee-Chee? Most baby boomers probably recall it well. I carried the yellow folder with the one-to-twelve multiplication tables to school for quickly completing simple math equations. Then, an amazing tool called the calculator replaced the Pee-Chee. It allowed me to enter numbers on a small electronic keypad then, poof! The equation’s solution would appear on a tiny screen. The calculators did not erode people’s math ability as some feared. It just made doing math more efficient.

The simple calculator evolved  into advanced machines that could solve formulas for engineering, medical use, and other fields. Today, when we access a calculator, we automatically assume that it will provide the requested information. We never question how it works, only that it does work, saving us time and mental energy. Everyone can use a simple calculator with its basic commands without any fear of technology.

With the advent of the internet, world wide web, and search bars, answers and connection times grew faster and more powerful .Today, dial-up connections have given way to links by satellite, fiber optics, cellular networks, and hotspots. We need not question how a search engine works; we merely expect that it will work. If we want to find how it works, we can search the internet for additional information that multiplies daily. In 2024, approximately 252,000 new websites were created each day, contributing to over 1.1 billion websites online.[i] All of this data is available for search engines like Google to crawl and index as it’s continuously updated.

[i] “How Many New Websites are Created Daily?” Oddball Marketing, accessed April 7, 2025, https://oddballmarketing.com.au/blog/how-many-new-websites-are-created-daily/