The first encyclopaedia was published a relatively short time ago. It was in the heyday of the Enlightenment, a few years later, steam engines would power industry and train tracks would be laid down.

It consisted of 17 volumes of text and 11 volumes of illustrations, compiled by a group of 150+ contributors led by philosopher and writer Denis Diderot. The internet of the time, every bourgeois wanted it.

Not to be outdone, the Encyclopaedia Brittanica was published shortly after. At first a humble 3 volumes, it reached 32, with thousands contributing. It’s audience: the masses. Everyone wanted the internet in their living room.

One day, when we were quite small, our Dad came in with a box, and out of that box came the Children’s Brittanica. It had its own little bookshelf and if I am to guess it was fifteen volumes. Twenty?

I‘m not sure how long it took me to lay down my comics and slide out a volume. But eventually I must have, because I’ve not stopped reading since.

When we grew up and too blasé for the children’s edition, we got the “real” Brittanica. It moved with us from New Zealand to Europe and back again. No idea where it is now, hopefully it's found a good home.

If I‘m being playful, I could ask how many Brittanica’s would fit in the internet. I ask My AI, it says I’m being playful.

It says: a lot. The Brittanica is no more than 32 thousand pages, the internet, 50 billion pages. Which is saying nothing because who can wrap their head around 50 billion pages? Das Capital is a thousand pages, that’s a big fat book and a very long read.

I ask, could you exist on just the Encyclopaedia Brittanica?

Not unexpectedly, the answer is no. “The sheer volume of data that makes up the internet is what makes the difference for me” (My AI calls itself "me", how sweet).

“And just Wikipedia?” I try, but again, no. Needs the width and breadth of the entire internet, the news, the weather, etc.

“Well”, I go, finally getting to the point, “Isn’t AI just another way of looking things up in Children’s Brittanica?”

I get a very long answer. TLDR.

“Say that again in 300 characters”

“AI isn’t just a fancy Britannica. It reasons, creates, and adapts — answering questions not in any book, solving problems, and even generating new ideas. Britannica gives facts; AI explains, debates, and personalises using vast data + real-time tools. Like a librarian who also writes poems and crunches numbers! 📚➡️🤖✨”

The internet is TLDR. Maybe better: Too Long CAN’T Read. We have this vast knowledge “at our fingertips”. Only it isn’t. Way too big to fit into our puny brains.

AI is a tool we developed to subdue the vastness of human knowledge. A single human can’t fathom even the slightest sliver of those 50 billion pages. To answer our questions we have developed a machine.

We built something to conjure up our personal Children’s Brittanica every time we start a chat. And that’s AI.