It’s safe to say there is a lot of hype around AI right now. A new technology that we all need to learn, get to grips with and understand. “Don’t be left behind”, “Learn how your business can use this powerful tool” are common calls to action.
However, what if I were to tell you that you already use AI in your daily life? What if I were to tell you that you are already seeing the outcomes of this powerful technology?
For some, especially if it is your passion and an interest, it is important to know how AI works. However, for the vast majority of us it is only important to know the benefits. Rather much like driving a car. We all know the benefits of driving but it’s mostly mechanics that know how they work. We just need to know how to drive them and why this is advantageous for us.
There are many definitions of AI so for this quick blog we will assume AI’s most basic definition. An algorithm that takes large amounts of data and has the ability to make intelligent decisions. Obviously AI is much more complex than this but for us, the end users, we really just want to know how we can use this tool.
Read more here about the difference between artificial intelligence and machine learning here.
It could be argued that artificial intelligence has existed for ten years and was in use back in the early days of social media and search engine optimisation (SEO).
Way before all the hype AI was quietly being implemented in significant applications. These applications form many services that we now take for granted. See below for eight AI tools already in common use.
Arguably one of the most successful and popular applications of AI technology. Why can social media timelines be so addictive? Because the content displayed on them is chosen by advanced algorithms which are said to know you better than you know yourself.
In the past Facebook have announced their timeline algorithm uses more than 100 metrics to place content on your timeline. It tracks data such as your location, time spent viewing posts, interactions, websites visited, network connections and some say the app even tracks your eye movements.
This vast amount of data is collected constantly and put to work with AI technology which forms the backbone of all your favourite social media platforms.
Knowing when to post on social media is critical for a successful social media campaign. Fortunately all the data you require to analyse the best time to post is accessible on social media, however it is often difficult to filter through.
This is where scheduling software becomes extremely helpful. By downloading large amounts of data associated with your profile, such as times when your audience are online or patterns in mass interactions, these basic forms of AI can determine the best time to post.
Up there with Google Search Results, social media adverts are one of the early innovative uses of AI. First and foremost social media platforms like Facebook use AI to segment audiences in granular detail. With advanced algorithms these platforms know their audience segments from likes, dislikes, location, networks, marital status, income levels (taken from third party financial organisations), interactions with videos and psychology from interactions with media on their platform.
This data is taken and processed by sophisticated AI to allow advertisers to publish their content to relevant audiences for a fee. It’s a careful balancing act as social media platforms have to deliver enough entertaining content to their users to keep them coming back while also embedding the odd advert to make money.
For Facebook this is not even new technology. They have been leading the market since 2007 when it officially launched the Facebook Ads platform. Before then Google had been using the same technology for even longer.
How Does Facebook Use Machine Learning to Deliver Ads?
Ever since predictive text on smartphones many large organisations have been putting money into developing AI technologies to help with writing. The leading example is of course Microsoft Word.
For years Microsoft has offered a spell check feature as standard and any long-term users will attest to how much better that feature has become over the years. Most recently their spelling and grammar checker could be classed more as machine learning, using advanced algorithms to check your writing against standard spelling and grammar rules. More recently it has moved firmly into the realm of AI with the introduction of CoPilot.
Within word, CoPilot will allow users to instantly summarise long passages of text, draft stories and even generate new ideas.
See more about how CoPilot is going to change how you use Microsoft here.
Have you noticed how newer smartphones take really good photos. In fact, they often give SLR cameras a run for their money which is incredible given that lens and sensors are much smaller in smartphones.
One of the big reasons for this quality is AI. Samsung and Apple both use AI to improve the photos taken on their latest smartphones. This allows users with lesser camera knowledge the ability to snap photos in almost any light conditions.
In fact the latest Samsung phones come with a staggering 100x zoom which is only possible because of AI. Firstly the majority of this zoom takes place within the image, its not optical as the zoom does not take place in the lens. AI helps to remove a good majority of the grain as it zooms into the images and helps stabilise the images from camera shake, using AI to anticipate human movement.
Samsung call this technology a Scene Optimiser. Here is a quick and interesting article from Samsung about how this technology works.
Often forgotten but very much appreciated is the use of AI to filter out spam emails. In fact early iterations of this technology has been in use since 2012.
In the early days machine learning algorithms helped Microsoft clean up its then notorious Hotmail service, which later morphed to Outlook. Google responded with Gmail which boasted a 99% spam filter.
More recently Google claims its spam rate is down to 0.1 percent. This is said to come from the introduction of a brain-like neural network into its spam filters that can learn to recognise junk emails. This is done by combining data from an enormous collection of computers.
Even when listening to music AI has an influence, especially if you use services such as Spotify. From personalised recommendations to playlists and advanced search functions.
A good example of how Spotify uses AI is in Podcast search. Audio from Podcasts are now analysed by AI with keywords being extracted to aid in user searches. No small feat considering some podcasts are hours long.
Read How Spotify Uses Artificial Intelligence—and What You Can Learn from It.
Who hasn’t used Google Maps or Maps on Apple? Long gone are the days of paper maps which you had to buy on a yearly basis. Now we have traffic data, speed limits, local amenities and much more updated by the second. All this is managed with AI.
Traffic data is collected via small amounts of anonymous data from Android users. This data contains GPS coordinates which are used to calculate movement speed. Combining huge amounts of this data Google then uses AI to deliver instant traffic data to users.
Did you know there are 20 billion kilometres of directions provided by Google Maps every day? The latest update on Google Maps uses AI to combine aerial photos with street view images to generate photorealistic 3D map views to aid navigation. Read more about how Google Maps uses AI here:
New Maps updates: Immersive View for routes and other AI features.
There is a lot of hype surrounding AI and its implications for job losses and substantial changes to modern life. However, as you can see from the examples above, AI is not a new tool. In fact it has been in popular use for over 10 years.
From this we can assume future advances in AI technology will serve to improve and streamline life. How many hours of your time have been saved with the use of the tools above? Yes, the full implications of advanced AI may be scary to the modern onlooker but think of it as a tool. We will adapt and learn to use such tools to improve many aspects of our daily routines.
What is your current most used AI tool? Let us know in the comments and if you have enjoyed this blog, please share it on your social media. Thanks for reading.
Post Scrip: this blog was written entirely by Lee Giacopazzi and no AI was used… only that to spell check and searches via Google. Honest, I’m not a robot.
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