8 Examples of Artificial Intelligence in our Everyday Lives

Main Examples of Artificial Intelligence Takeaways:

The words artificial intelligence may seem like a far-off concept that has nothing to do with us. But the truth is that we encounter several examples of artificial intelligence in our daily lives.

From Netflixs movie recommendation to Amazons Alexa, we now rely on various AI models without knowing it. In this post, well consider eight examples of how were already using artificial intelligence.

Artificial intelligence is an expansive branch of computer science that focuses on building smart machines. Thanks to AI, these machines can learn from experience, adjust to new inputs, and perform human-like tasks. For example, chess-playing computers and self-driving cars rely heavily on natural language processing and deep learning to function.

American computer scientist John McCarthy coined the term artificial intelligence back in 1956. At the time, McCarthy only created the term to distinguish the AI field from cybernetics.

However, AI is more popular than ever today due to:

Hollywood movies tend to depict artificial intelligence as a villainous technology that is destined to take over the world.

One example is the artificial superintelligence system, Skynet, from the film franchise Terminator. Theres also VIKI, an AI supercomputer from the movie I, Robot, who deemed that humans cant be trusted with their own survival.

Holywood has also depicted AI as superintelligent robots, like in movies I Am Mother and Ex Machina.

However, the current AI technologies are not as sinister or quite as advanced. With that said, these depictions raise an essential question:

No, not exactly. Artificial intelligence and robotics are two entirely separate fields. Robotics is a technology branch that deals with physical robots programmable machines designed to perform a series of tasks. On the other hand, AI involves developing programs to complete tasks that would otherwise require human intelligence. However, the two fields can overlap to create artificially intelligent robots.

Most robots are not artificially intelligent. For example, industrial robots are usually programmed to perform the same repetitive tasks. As a result, they typically have limited functionality.

However, introducing an AI algorithm to an industrial robot can enable it to perform more complex tasks. For instance, it can use a path-finding algorithm to navigate around a warehouse autonomously.

To understand how thats possible, we must address another question:

The four artificial intelligence types are reactive machines, limited memory, Theory of Mind, and self-aware. These AI types exist as a type of hierarchy, where the simplest level requires basic functioning, and the most advanced level is well, all-knowing. Other subsets of AI include big data, machine learning, and natural language processing.

The simplest types of AI systems are reactive. They can neither learn from experiences nor form memories. Instead, reactive machines react to some inputs with some output.

Examples of artificial intelligence machines in this category include Googles AlphaGo and IBMs chess-playing supercomputer, Deep Blue.

Deep Blue can identify chess pieces and knows how each of them moves. While the machine can choose the most optimal move from several possibilities, it cant predict the opponents moves.

A reactive machine doesnt rely on an internal concept of the world. Instead, it perceives the world directly and acts on what it sees.

Limited memory refers to an AIs ability to store previous data and use it to make better predictions. In other words, these types of artificial intelligence can look at the recent past to make immediate decisions.

Note that limited memory is required to create every machine learning model. However, the model can get deployed as a reactive machine type.

The three significant examples of artificial intelligence in this category are:

Self-driving cars are limited memory AI that makes immediate decisions using data from the recent past.

For example, self-driving cars use sensors to identify steep roads, traffic signals, and civilians crossing the streets. The vehicles can then use this information to make better driving decisions and avoid accidents.

In Psychology, theory of mind refers to the ability to attribute mental state beliefs, intent, desires, emotion, knowledge to oneself and others. Its the fundamental reason we can have social interactions.

Unfortunately, were yet to reach the Theory of Mind artificial intelligence type. Although voice assistants exhibit such capabilities, its still a one-way relationship.

For example, you could yell angrily at Google Maps to take you in another direction. However, itll neither show concern for your distress nor offer emotional support. Instead, the map application will return the same traffic report and ETA.

An AI system with Theory of Mind would understand that humans have thoughts, feelings, and expectations for how to be treated. That way, it can adjust its response accordingly.

The final step of AI development is to build self-aware machines that can form representations of themselves. Its an extension and advancement of the Theory of Mind AI.

A self-aware machine has human-level consciousness, with the ability to think, desire, and understand its feelings. At the moment, these types of artificial intelligence only exist in movies and comic book pages. Self-aware machines do not exist.

Although self-aware machines are still decades away, several artificial intelligence examples already exist in our everyday lives.

Several examples of artificial intelligence impact our lives today. These include FaceID on iPhones, the search algorithm on Google, and the recommendation algorithm on Netflix. Youll also find other examples of how AI is in use today on social media, digital assistants like Alexa, and ride-hailing apps such as Uber.

Virtual filters on Snapchat and the FaceID unlock on iPhones are two examples of AI applications today. While the former uses face detection technology to identify any face, the latter relies on face recognition.

So, how does it work?

The TrueDepth camera on the Apple devices projects over 30,000 invisible dots to create a depth map of your face. It also captures an infrared image of the users face.

After that, a machine learning algorithm compares the scan of your face with what a previously enrolled facial data. That way, it can determine whether to unlock the device or not.

According to Apple, FaceID automatically adapts to changes in the users appearance. These include wearing cosmetic makeup, growing facial hair, or wearing hats, glasses, or contact lens.

The Cupertino-based tech giant also stated that the chance of fooling FaceID is one in a million.

Several text editors today rely on artificial intelligence to provide the best writing experience.

For example, document editors use an NLP algorithm to identify incorrect grammar usage and suggest corrections. Besides auto-correction, some writing tools also provide readability and plagiarism grades.

However, editors such as INK took AI usage a bit further to provide specialized functions. It uses artificial intelligence to offer smart web content optimization recommendations.

Just recently, INK has released a study showing how its AI-powered writing platform can improve content relevance and help drive traffic to sites. You can read their full study here.

Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram rely heavily on artificial intelligence for various tasks.

Currently, these social media platforms use AI to personalize what you see on your feeds. The model identifies users interests and recommends similar content to keep them engaged.

Also, researchers trained AI models to recognize hate keywords, phrases, and symbols in different languages. That way, the algorithm can swiftly take down social media posts that contain hate speech.

Other examples of artificial intelligence in social media include:

Plans for social media platform involve using artificial intelligence to identify mental health problems. For example, an algorithm could analyze content posted and consumed to detect suicidal tendencies.

Getting queries directly from a customer representative can be very time-consuming. Thats where artificial intelligence comes in.

Computer scientists train chat robots or chatbots to impersonate the conversational styles of customer representatives using natural language processing.

Chatbots can now answer questions that require a detailed response in place of a specific yes or no answer. Whats more, the bots can learn from previous bad ratings to ensure maximum customer satisfaction.

As a result, machines now perform basic tasks such as answering FAQs or taking and tracking orders.

Media streaming platforms such as Netflix, YouTube, and Spotify rely on a smart recommendation system thats powered by AI.

First, the system collects data on users interests and behavior using various online activities. After that, machine learning and deep learning algorithms analyze the data to predict preferences.

Thats why youll always find movies that youre likely to watch on Netflixs recommendation. And you wont have to search any further.

Search algorithms ensure that the top results on the search engine result page (SERP) have the answers to our queries. But how does this happen?

Search companies usually include some type of quality control algorithm to recognize high-quality content. It then provides a list of search results that best answer the query and offers the best user experience.

Since search engines are made entirely of codes, they rely on natural language processing (NLP) technology to understand queries.

Last year, Google announced Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT), an NLP pre-training technique. Now, the technology powers almost all English-based query on Google Search.

In October 2011, Apples Siri became the first digital assistant to be standard on a smartphone. However, voice assistants have come a long way since then.

Today, Google Assistant incorporates advanced NLP and ML to become well-versed in human language. Not only does it understand complex commands, but it also provides satisfactory outputs.

Also, digital assistants now have adaptive capabilities for analyzing user preferences, habits, and schedules. That way, they can organize and plan actions such as reminders, prompts, and schedules.

Various smart home devices now use AI applications to conserve energy.

For example, smart thermostats such as Nest use our daily habits and heating/cooling preferences to adjust home temperatures. Likewise, smart refrigerators can create shopping lists based on whats absent on the fridges shelves.

The way we use artificial intelligence at home is still evolving. More AI solutions now analyze human behavior and function accordingly.

We encounter AI daily, whether youre surfing the internet or listening to music on Spotify.

Other examples of artificial intelligence are visible in smart email apps, e-commerce, smart keyboard apps, as well as banking and finance. Artificial intelligence now plays a significant role in our decisions and lifestyle.

The media may have portrayed AI as a competition to human workers or a concept thatll eventually take over the world. But thats not the case.

Instead, artificial intelligence is helping humans become more productive and helping us live a better life.

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8 Examples of Artificial Intelligence in our Everyday Lives