In November 2022, a company called OpenAI released a chatbot called ChatGPT. Within five days, it had a million users. Within two months, a hundred million — the fastest any product in history had reached that number.

People were asking it to write poems, debug computer code, explain medical diagnoses, translate languages, summarise documents, and have philosophical arguments. Many were amazed. Some were frightened. Most were confused about what they were actually talking to.

This article answers the question most people are too embarrassed to ask: what is AI, really? Not in jargon, not in hype — in plain language that makes the revolution legible.

The Simple Version

AI stands for Artificial Intelligence — the ability of a computer to do things that previously required human intelligence. Reading text, understanding speech, recognising faces in a photo, making decisions based on data.

The type of AI that has changed everything recently is called Generative AI — AI that doesn't just process information but creates new content: text, images, audio, video, code.

ChatGPT is a generative AI. So is Gemini (made by Google), Claude (made by Anthropic), and Copilot (made by Microsoft). They all do roughly the same thing: you type a question or request, they generate a response.

The staggering part is not that they respond — it is how they respond. The text they produce is indistinguishable from something a well-read human wrote. Because in a very literal sense, they learned from what well-read humans wrote.

100 Cr
Parameters (learned connections) in GPT-4 — more than synapses in a human brain
Source: OpenAI, estimated 2023
5 Days
Time for ChatGPT to reach 1 million users — faster than any product ever
Source: OpenAI, November 2022
Free
Basic version of ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude — usable by anyone with a browser
Source: OpenAI, Google, Anthropic — 2025
22
Indian languages supported by Google Gemini as of 2025
Source: Google, 2025

How Does It Actually Work?

Imagine you read every book, article, website, and conversation ever written — billions of pages. Then someone asks you a question. You don't look it up; you just know the answer because you've absorbed so much that the patterns become intuitive.

That, extremely simplified, is what a Large Language Model (LLM) — the technology behind ChatGPT and Gemini — does.

Here is the actual process in three steps:

Step 1 — Training. Engineers feed the AI enormous amounts of text: books, Wikipedia, websites, academic papers, code, conversations. The model reads each sentence and learns which words tend to follow which other words, in what contexts, across billions of examples. This training takes months and costs tens of millions of dollars in computing power.

Step 2 — Pattern learning. During training, the model adjusts billions of mathematical connections (called "parameters") to get better at predicting what word comes next. It doesn't memorise the text — it learns the structure of language and knowledge. After training, the model has internalised how ideas connect.

Step 3 — Generation. When you type a question, the model predicts the most sensible, coherent response based on what it learned. It generates one word at a time, each word chosen based on what makes sense given everything before it. The result sounds fluent because it was trained on fluent text.

This is why these systems are called "language models." They model language — its patterns, its logic, its knowledge — at an extraordinary scale.

What Makes ChatGPT Different from a Search Engine

A search engine (Google) finds existing web pages that match your query. It does not create anything new. You get links.

An AI chatbot generates a response specifically for your question. It synthesises information from everything it learned and writes a new answer. No links, no copy-paste — a fresh response every time.

This distinction matters because:


  • A search engine is only as good as what has been written and indexed

  • An AI can reason about new combinations of ideas, explain things in the way you need to hear them, or help you with a task no one has written a guide for

It also means AI can be wrong in a completely confident way. A search engine shows you what exists; an AI generates what sounds plausible. These are very different failure modes.

The Main Players in 2025-2026

ChatGPT — OpenAI

The one that started the revolution. Available at chat.openai.com. The free version (GPT-4o mini) is capable for most tasks. The paid version (GPT-4o, $20/month or ₹1,700/month) is significantly more powerful.

Gemini — Google

Google's response. Available at gemini.google.com. Integrated into Gmail, Google Docs, and Android phones. The free tier is strong, and Gemini has the advantage of being able to search the live web. Supports Hindi and 21 other Indian languages natively, making it the most accessible AI for Indian-language users.

Claude — Anthropic

Considered by many developers to be the best for writing, analysis, and nuanced reasoning. Available at claude.ai. The free tier allows substantial daily use. Claude is trained to be cautious and honest about what it doesn't know — it will say "I'm not certain" more readily than the others.

Copilot — Microsoft

Built on GPT-4 technology, integrated into Windows, Edge browser, and Microsoft 365. If you use Office or Teams at work, Copilot is the AI you are most likely to encounter. Available for free through the Edge browser.

Grok — xAI (Elon Musk)

Integrated into X (Twitter). Known for being less filtered than other AIs. Available to X Premium subscribers.

DeepSeek — Chinese AI

DeepSeek R1, released January 2025, caused a global shock by matching or exceeding GPT-4's performance at a fraction of the training cost — suggesting the AI race is more competitive than previously thought. Available free at deepseek.com.

What AI Can Do — and What It Cannot

AI is genuinely good at:


  • Writing and editing: emails, reports, summaries, letters, job applications

  • Explaining complex topics simply (medicine, law, finance) in your language

  • Translating between languages including Indian languages

  • Coding: writing, debugging, explaining code

  • Answering factual questions across a vast range of topics

  • Brainstorming, creative writing, making arguments

AI makes serious mistakes in:


  • Dates and current events after its training cutoff — it may not know about things that happened recently

  • Specific numbers — it can state wrong figures confidently

  • "Hallucination" — it sometimes invents facts, citations, people, or events that do not exist. This is the AI's most dangerous failure mode

  • Local and niche knowledge — deep expertise about your specific district, state regulation, or rare situation may be absent or wrong

The most important rule for using AI: Always verify critical information (medical, legal, financial) from authoritative sources. Use AI as a starting point, a drafter, a translator — not as a final authority.

AI in India: What Is Already Happening

The Indian government's IndiaAI Mission, launched in March 2024 with a budget of ₹10,372 crore, is building India's public AI computing infrastructure and funding AI research across IITs and startups. The goal is to ensure India is not just a consumer of foreign AI but a builder of its own.

Bhashini (bhashini.gov.in) is an AI-powered language platform built by the government that translates between Indian languages in real time — including spoken translation. It is integrated into Jan Suvidha Kendras and several state government portals.

Private sector: Indian companies including Sarvam AI, Krutrim (Ola), and CoRover are building AI systems optimised for Indian languages and the Indian context. BharatGPT, developed by IIT Bombay in collaboration with Reliance, is focused on Indic language understanding.

What You Can Do

  • Try Gemini free right now at gemini.google.com — type your question in Hindi or English. No signup required to start.
  • Use ChatGPT free at chat.openai.com for writing help, explanation, translation, or any question.
  • In Hindi: Gemini and Claude both support Hindi fluently. Type in Hindi and get responses in Hindi.
  • Never trust AI for final medical, legal, or financial decisions — use it to understand your situation, then verify with a doctor, lawyer, or official portal.
  • If AI gives you a fact that sounds important: check it on the official website (government portal, hospital, court) before acting on it.

AI is not magic and it is not a threat to people who understand it. It is a tool — the most powerful general-purpose tool built since the internet. Every Indian who understands how it works is better positioned to use it, not be misled by it.

Sources