Editor’s note: The advancement of artificial intelligence–AI is already affecting our daily functions, but there may be a future impact on our lives in Webster City. First you need to know more about AI. Tomorrow, look for more about how it is impacting Iowa communities.

What happens when you ask Google to help you create a meal plan for next week? Instead of simply listing sources you might consult to answer that question, the first thing you’ll probably see is an AI overview. These AI-generated summaries are created by Search Generative Experience–SGE, Google’s proprietary AI facility. Google, used for more than 90% of all internet searches worldwide, began showing AI summaries sometime in spring 2024.

Google and other tech firms want you to use the summary as a portal to begin speaking directly to their chat robots–chatbots. Asking ChatGPT, the extremely popular chatbot of Generative AI, the meal plan question, produces this answer:

“Discover how to use ChatGPT for cooking, grocery shopping, and meal prep. Get recipe ideas, meal plans, substitutions, and budget-friendly tips tailored to your ingredients and goals.* Tap a chat to get started.” Just like that, your new friend and advisor, ChatGPT is ready to do your thinking and planning for you.

Artificial Intelligence is much in the news today, but what is it, really? No less an authority than IBM defines AI as “technology that enables computers and machines to simulate human learning, comprehension, problem solving, decision making, creativity and autonomy.”

It’s that last characteristic, autonomy, that’s become controversial. Simply put, when someone or something has autonomy, it has the ability to make its own decisions, independent of others.

Today, machines equipped with AI can see and identify objects and people, understand and respond to humans in many languages, and even learn from experience. If a self-driving car ever becomes an everyday reality, it will be largely because of highly-advanced, interactive AI.

You’ll find it hard to avoid or ignore AI even if you want to. It’s all about the money. From 2013 to 2024, $1.6 trillion (that’s $1,600,000,000,000) has been invested to develop artificial intelligence. By 2025, over half the world’s venture capital was being spent on AI.

The world’s biggest tech firms: Nvidia, Microsoft, Alphabet, (parent of Google), Meta, (parent of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsAPP, and other platforms, the world’s largest social media company) all expect AI to revolutionize their businesses and super charge their growth.

The United States is by far the world’s biggest investor in the future growth of AI, with an estimated $450 billion invested between 2013 and 2024. In 2025 alone, $166 billion, almost 80% of all the funds invested in AI worldwide, were poured into U.S.-based AI firms.

China is next, with $125 billion put into AI since 2013. China has focused AI investments in “real world” applications, especially in industrial automation, which it sees as key to remaining the world’s largest manufacturing nation.

As of 2023, an estimated 75% of everyday consumer goods were made in China, especially those which contain electronic circuitry. Shifting manufacturing from Europe and the U.S. to China, over the last 25 years, has employed tens of millions of Chinese people, lifting them out of poverty in the process.

China leads in development of humanoid robots, which are already replacing humans in repetitive assembly line jobs. China has built robots capable of replacing humans in dangerous occupations, including military combat, mining and fire-fighting. More than 150 Chinese companies are developing humanoid robots, and they expect to have 300,000,000 robots at work by 2050. You can watch online videos of Chinese robots cooking dinner, making coffee and cleaning up after themselves.

While AI firms stress the potential of the technology to improve life, a major concern is the ability of AI to deceive. Examples include Pope Francis in a white “puffer” jacket, or Donald Trump being arrested by a policeman in New York City. Neither is true, but millions of viewers were convinced it was.

Tomorrow: The Impact of AI Data Centers