Can someone explain AI and why it’s set to change the world?

[Cheekyfuckerry]

So sorry to ask what is probably a ridiculous question but can someone explain what it is? How can it replace humans? What is chatGPT? (I may not have that phrase correct by the way)

I keep seeing threads about how our lives will change, how it will take over all our jobs etc, I can understand that maybe it will be able to answer phones and queries like the way bots on live chat / phones do now but what else is it able to do?

How can it change the world?

I don't find it a threat to our jobs or existence. That's fine, we'll adapt. We'll get it to do the basics and humans will finish it off. That's fine with me.

AI can do a lot more than the 'basics' though, and it's getting more sophisticated all the time.

If your job involves sitting in front of a computer all day, AI can probably do it better and certainly cheaper. And sure, we'll adapt, as we have done to other innovations, but many jobs and indeed professions will be made redundant in the near future.

My concern is less about what it can do than about how we respond

We have been through multiple technological revolutions and generally it leads to lots of disruption, think people
Moving to the factories in the 1800/ or the complete culture changes that accompanied the agricultural revolution bc5000 ish

So huge periods of lives getting worse for lots of people, job losses and such and then 100 years later we find that humans are still trapped in a work to live cycle- the improvements we could see such as increased leisure and less poverty just don't happen

You never envision being murdered by your toaster or washing machine, but in movies, as soon as the machine looks like a human, we are all doooooomed.