--- title: "Scientists Have a Dirty Secret: Nobody Knows How AI Actually Works" description: "As AI is increasingly integrated into our lives, scientists building the tech are still trying to understand it, the MIT Tech Review reports." date: "2024-03-05" modified: "2024-03-05" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/nobody-knows-how-ai-works" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "ai" - "computer science" - "machine learning" - "the digest" --- # Scientists Have a Dirty Secret: Nobody Knows How AI Actually Works ![As AI is increasingly integrated into our lives, scientists building the tech are still trying to understand it, the MIT Tech Review reports.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Mystery Machine The AI industry exploded in late 2022, following the wild success of OpenAI's ChatGPT release in November of that year. Generative AI tools — from [chatbots]() to remarkably lifelike [music]() and [voice-generators]() to [image]() and [video]() creators, and more — continue to dazzle the public, while AI and machine learning advancements continue to find applications in fields like [healthcare]() and [drug discovery](). Just one problem: not even the folks creating all this AI fully understand how it really works. "Obviously, we're not completely ignorant," University of California, San Diego computer scientist Mikhail Belkin [told *MIT Technology Review*](). "But our theoretical analysis is so far off what these models can do." Indeed, as *MIT Tech* explains, many AI models are notoriously [black boxes](), which in short means that while an algorithm might produce a useful output, it's unclear to researchers how it actually got there. This has [been the case for years](), with AI systems often defying statistics-based theoretical models. Regardless, the AI industry is careening ahead, fueled by [billions of investment dollars]() and a hefty share of [near-fanatical belief](). (And, of course, the [C-Suite vision]() of eliminating vast swaths of the workforce.) In other words, AI is already everywhere. But as it's increasingly integrated into human life, the scientists building the tech are still trying to fully understand how it learns and functions. ## Spaghetti, Meet Wall Some experts chalk the lack of understanding up to the burgeoning nature of the field, arguing that AI's nascency means that sometimes researchers will have to work backward from experimental results and outputs. "These are exciting times," Boaz Barak, a Harvard University computer scientist, told *MIT Tech.* "Many people in the field often compare it to physics at the beginning of the 20th century." "We have a lot of experimental results that we don't completely understand," Borak continued, "and often when you do an experiment it surprises you." ## No Guarantees If the industry's still-minimal degree of understanding seems at all cavalier, though, it's because it is. To be sure, experimentation and uncertainty are natural, if not inherent, to the scientific process. But AI models are no longer restricted to metaphorical Silicon Valley test tubes; the AI industry is a lucrative financial behemoth, and like with other technologies, the familiar "move fast and break things" approach that many in the industry have moved with could well [present]() [challenges]() [down the road](). After all, as Belkin told *MIT Tech**,* guarantees are important. And here? They don't exist quite yet. "I'm very interested in guarantees," said Belkin, according to the report. "If you can do amazing things but you can't really control it, then it's not so amazing." "What good is a car that can drive 300 miles per hour," he added, "if it has a shaky steering wheel?" **More on shaky AI steering wheels:** [*Researchers Create AI-Powered Malware That Spreads on Its Own*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()