AIOW · AI guide
AI guide
Clear answers to the questions business owners ask about AI. No hype, with sources under every article.
Quick overview: AI in 10 questions → · From the real world: the blog →
Topics
- How AI worksWhat AI is, how a language model arrives at an answer and what an AI agent does.3 articles
- History and science fictionFrom the first robot stories to ChatGPT.1 article
- Companies and modelsWho is behind Claude, ChatGPT, Grok, Kimi and Gemini? As of October 2026.8 articles
- Local modelsRunning AI on your own computer or server.1 article
- AI in your businessPractical uses and where to start.2 articles
- Privacy, GDPR and the AI ActWhat is and is not allowed, and which rules apply when.2 articles
All articles
How AI works
- What is AI, really?A plain explanation of artificial intelligence, machine learning and generative AI, without the jargon.
- How does a language model work? In plain wordsWhat happens when you ask ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini a question, why it sometimes makes things up, and what to do about it.
- What is an AI agent?The difference between a chatbot, a workflow and an agent, and when an agent makes sense for your business.
Companies and models
- Who is Anthropic, and what is Claude?The company behind Claude, who founded it and what it stands for. As of October 2026.
- Who is OpenAI, and what is ChatGPT?From a non-profit research lab in 2015 to the maker of ChatGPT. What you need to know about OpenAI. As of October 2026.
- What is xAI, and what is Grok?Elon Musk's AI company, the Grok models and what the SpaceX takeover means. As of October 2026.
- Who is Moonshot AI, and what is Kimi?The Chinese AI company behind Kimi, and why it stands out with open models. As of October 2026.
- What is Google Gemini?Google's AI models and assistant, what happened to Bard, and what "multimodal" means. As of October 2026.
- From Hangzhou to your GP: Asian AI and the futureWho are DeepSeek and Alibaba with Qwen, what do open weights mean, what's going on with chips and memory, and what can AI do for healthcare? As of October 2026.
- Meta and Llama, what Meta does with AI and what it means for youFrom the open Llama models to the new Muse family. What Meta makes, what you can run yourself and what already works in the Netherlands. As of October 2026.
- Mistral, Europe's AI player from ParisWho Mistral AI is, what Le Chat is, which models you can run yourself, where your data is stored and what ASML has to do with it. As of October 2026.
AI in your business
- Five practical uses of AI for small businessesWhere a small or medium-sized business can sensibly start with AI, and what to watch out for.
- The future of AI, what is realistic for the next few years?What we know about AI today, what forecasters expect and what is genuinely uncertain. With figures from CBS, Stanford, Gartner, the IMF and the IEA. As of October 2026.
Privacy, GDPR and the AI Act
- AI and privacy, what is allowed under the GDPR?Customer data in a chatbot, data breaches, processing agreements and DPIAs. What the Dutch Data Protection Authority advises.
- The EU AI Act in brief, for business ownersWhat the European AI regulation is, which rules apply when, what is banned and what you have to do as a business that uses AI. As of October 2026.
Coming soon
Still in the works: Glossary