15 things everyone should understand about how AI actually works

Most people use AI daily without truly understanding how it works, and that gap creates real problems. AI doesn't actually "think" — it recognizes statistical patterns in training data and predicts likely text outputs, which is why it can sound confident while being completely wrong. These systems have no real knowledge, can't recognize their own errors, and reflect the biases in their training data. Closing this gap helps people use AI more carefully and evaluate industry claims more critically.