Can you think of 5 uses of AI?
AI has become such a big part of daily life and is progressing so rapidly that it’s easy to forgot or not be aware of its use. I put my husband on the spot earlier and asked him to give me 5 examples of AI. Self driving cars were the first thing that came to his mind, but then he struggled and couldn’t think of anything else.
I then began to list all the recent examples I have come across through researching this topic. Siri, IBM Watson, Chatbots, Google Home (we just got a Google Home devise in the past 2 weeks so it’s a big novelty in the house at the moment) and Google Maps. He began frantically nodding along and even adding a few more as we got into the swing of things. My point here is that it has become such common place that we just see it as devises working smartly.
Burger King had an ingenious idea
One of the most widely broadcasted use of AI for advertising purposes was the Burger King ad in 2018. A food attendant looks into the camera and says “OK, Google, what’s the Whopper burger?” Google Home devises within earshot then cited the Wikipedia entry. It was a very clever way of gaming the system for advertising.
Source: Pexels.com
AI is encountered by most people from morning until night
Amazon and Netflix are leading the way in AI enhanced recommendation engines. Just last week I was scrolling through Netflix in search of something new to watch, when I was recommended the TV series “The Stranger”. After one episode I was hooked. Netflix uses past viewing history to suggest content you might like to watch across genres, actors and more. Apparently, 80% of what we watch is driven by Netflix’s recommendations. There is so much content on Netflix that I probably would have settled for a mediocre series if the platform wasn’t so spot on with recommendations.
But with all these positive developments, some companies are already becomming wary of the downsides of AI. Skills that were highly needed and relevant are becoming obsolete. Just last week I read that Europe’s first fast food delivery by drone will commence in my locality this March. Could computers be getting too smart and begin taking all our jobs and eventually wipe us all out?
A closer look at AI today 