Whenever Artificial Intelligence is mentioned, many imagine a dystopian future in which every single activity is carried out by machines.
Furthermore, a widespread misconception is the fact that Artificial Intelligence is about the future and that it is not yet part of our lives.
Artificial Intelligence, on the other hand, is applied in the most diverse sectors and has undoubtedly transformed our lives, simplifying them in several respects.
Thanks to AI and Machine Learning, even companies have begun to eliminate the most repetitive tasks by optimizing workflow and resources.
In this article we will see some examples of the fields of application of artificial intelligence that you can find everywhere, from your smartphone to medicine, from social media to road safety and online.
Where can artificial intelligence be found?
Artificial Intelligence today has become such a widespread technology that you don’t even realize how many times, in everyday life, we use services built on AI and Machine Learning.
Let’s now look at some examples.
1. Virtual assistants
Google, Siri, Cortana … All the virtual assistants we know have simplified many of the everyday tasks: from reminders to jokes, these assistants have the ability to recognize speech patterns and are based on NLP (Natural Language Processing).
2. Social media
Most platforms have implemented Artificial Intelligence for several purposes: Snapchat employs facial recognition for filtering, Twitter uses NLP to identify and eliminate hate speech, and Facebook and Instagram employ in Machine Learning and Deep Learning to identify the interests of users and propose related content.
3. App for home delivery
Often the most used home delivery platforms send eye-catching notifications at lunchtime or at dinner time. This is possible thanks to Artificial Intelligence which, in addition to monitoring the time, is able to offer restaurants and dishes similar to our habits.
4. Vehicle recognition
Image Recognition and Deep Learning are branches of Artificial Intelligence often used in the instrumentation provided to the Police for the recognition of vehicle license plates.
5. Self-driving car
The self-driving cars that we hear a lot about, first of all Tesla, employ Deep Learning, Object Identification, Image Detection, Motion Detection etc. to move without the need for a driver.
The peculiarity of self-driving cars lies in effectively eliminating “human error”. In fact, in case of danger, the program is able to make the best decisions in a very short time.
But what decision must the car make in case of imminent danger while driving? In this case, a broad discussion on ethics could be opened, but I leave you a very interesting short video if you want to learn more: The ethical dilemma of self-driving cars.
6. Email and messaging
The mailboxes incorporate an automatic message filtering system by inserting them directly into the spam folder.
Not only in emails but also in messaging it is possible that a reply may be suggested based on the text received. All this is possible only thanks to Artificial Intelligence.
7. Predictive Research
First of all Google but also shopping platforms such as Amazon or Ebay suggest the completion of the sentence as you type.
The application is in fact able to predict what we are looking for by taking into account various factors such as order history, position, trend keywords, etc.
8. Health
The main medical application of AI concerns the identification of diseases such as skin cancer through image analysis. This has greatly simplified the doctors’ diagnoses, consequently reducing human error in the evaluation.
9. Chatbot
Now widespread on most smartphone applications and online sites, chatbots recognize words and phrases and return useful answers to customers. Sometimes, chatbots are so precise that it feels like you’re talking to a real person.
In fact, their intent is to mimic natural language by simulating conversations that can then lead to booking an appointment, receiving an order or answering the most frequently asked questions about a particular product or service.
10. Tips
Video and music streaming services such as Netflix and Spotify use Artificial Intelligence to monitor our habits and aggregate those data in order to suggest songs, movies or TV series that we might like based on our interests.
Google Play’s music recommendation service also employs other factors in its suggestions: the time of day or weather leads to suggestions that might be suitable for that mood. For example, a dance playlist or soft music on rainy days will probably be recommended more easily on Friday nights.
Conclusions
What we have seen are just some examples of the possibilities of applying AI but they give an idea of how widespread this technology is in the life of each of us. Thanks to Artificial Intelligence, many aspects of our daily lives are improved with virtual assistants or systems for blocking fraudulent messages even if, often, we don’t even realize it.