The goals of artificial intelligence are to learn, reason, and perceive like humans.
How does Artificial Intelligence help us in our daily lives? Let us find out.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a technology through which machines can simulate intelligence like human beings and perform better than them. Artificial Intelligence is not just robots as seen in movies but has far more useful applications. From simple activities like reading emails to complex activities like booking a vacation. It is everywhere.
Let’s find out how we use Artificial Intelligence in our day-today lives through Amit, (our 17-year-old imaginary friend who loves to use technology just like you and me.)
Weather forecast through Artificial Intelligence
Amit wakes up in the morning and is ready to leave for school. He looks out of the window and is worried to see the dark clouds. He anticipates that it might rain during the day. He asks Alexa/Siri/Google Assistant, about the weather. Digital assistants like Alexa give him all the details about the weather predicted for the day. This helps him to plan his day ahead. This is a fine example of Artificial Intelligence.
Music Playlist selection through Artificial Intelligence
Amit loves to listen to music while he is getting ready for school and asks the digital assistant (Alexa) to play music for him. Alexa chooses to play hit songs from his playlist. The playlist is created based on his past selection of music. In his case, he loves retro, therefore Alexa plays songs from artists like Elvis Presley and Michael Bolton.
Here the AI chooses music based on his past preference. It helps him to seamlessly play music without any physical effort from his side like changing the station or selecting individual music tracks. Also, music companies like Spotify, Jio Sawan, YT Music, Gaana use artificial intelligence to track your listening habits and use the information to suggest other songs you might like to hear. Video channels like YouTube use AI to suggest videos that you might like based on your past selection.
Email segregation through Artificial Intelligence
Amit checks his email to see an update on his assignment before he leaves for school and logs in to his laptop to see that his proposal has been approved by his teacher. Most of the email organizations use AI to segregate emails into primary, spam, promotions, social media updates, etc. based on the user’s response to past emails. This helps to save time, as the user doesn’t have to go through many emails to find the important ones.
Social Media activities with Artificial Intelligence
He checks his social media on his way to school on his smart phone and checks on the trending topics on Twitter, comments on his friend’s Facebook posts and participates in an online poll. Social media companies like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc. use big data and artificial intelligence to target advertising, fight cyberbullying and delete offensive comments on their platform.
Search Engine suggestions with Artificial Intelligence
Amit reaches school and starts work on his project. He searches for images with Google search engine by typing relevant key words. The purpose of Google’s algorithm is to deliver the best possible results to the searcher. To do this, Google uses AI to determine the quality of content and match it to the user’s query. Also, when a user begins typing a search term, Google makes recommendations for him to choose from, that’s AI in action.
Cab booking through Artificial Intelligence
After school, Amit plans to book an Uber to go to his cricket coaching. He logs in to the Uber app on his mobile phone. He decides to use ride-share option to save some money. When he books a cab, a notification is sent to all the nearby drivers. One of them accepts the booking and then reaches the location specified by him. He is then picked up and dropped off at the specified location. This is a fine example of how Artificial Intelligence is improving our lives.
Product recommendation on eCommerce websites/apps through Artificial Intelligence
Amit realizes during his cricket coaching that he needs new pair of shoes. He logs in to an ecommerce app like Amazon through his smart phone to order shoes. The app also suggests him to buy winter jersey as he might need it during outdoor practice in cold weather in the coming months. It also, suggests him best deals where he can save money.
The app recommends him related products based on what he has searched. It is done through artificial intelligence. This helps the shopping apps like Amazon to do more business while helping the buyers to make quick purchasing decisions. Similarly, when you are booking a flight, hotel or a vacation through an app, it suggests you best deals based on your location, days of travel and other travel parameters.
Job hunting through Artificial Intelligence
Amit comes back home from football coaching. He logs in to his laptop as he wants to apply for internship in the coming months. He quickly uploads his CV on the job portal. A chatbot appears that asks him few basic questions like job location, his current location, area of expertise, interest, etc.
Within minutes it lists him all the available open positions that help him to apply for internship with ease. AI helps to narrow down the search by matching his skill sets and his desired location with the open positions.
Auto-pilot through Artificial Intelligence
Amit’s uncle visits him for dinner. He is a commercial pilot. He discusses with Amit about how the pilots use auto-pilot functions on the airplane, and cruise through the sky with the help of AI. Amit’s uncle adds that in the future, Boeing plans to develop jetliners which will be piloted by artificial intelligence. There will be no human pilots in the cockpit to fly the airplanes.
On the ground, companies like Tesla are using auto-pilot or self-driving capabilities in their cars that enhances safety and convenience behind the wheel. This advanced driver assistant system helps with lane centering, traffic-aware cruise control, self-parking, automatic lane changes, semi-autonomous navigation on limited access freeways, and the ability to summon the car from a garage or parking spot. Isn’t this amazing?
Alarm and timers through Artificial Intelligence
Amit is ready for bed. He asks Alexa to set up an Alarm for 6 am, the next morning. He would like to start early. Digital assistant Alexa sets up an alarm for the next day. Instead of setting an alarm manually, he uses AI to set an alarm for next day. He can also command Alexa to put the Alarm on repeat mode so that everyday Alexa can give him a wakeup call at 6 am.
We get a peek into how Artificial Intelligence has impacted our lives by observing a day in the life of Amit. We realize that AI is used to make our day-to-day activities efficient and faster. Amit is just like you and me, unaware that he is using artificial intelligence every day. Do you know what is the scope of Artificial Intelligence in the future?
Career opportunities with Artificial Intelligence
A career in AI looks more promising than any other jobs available these days. If you are qualified in the field of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, you can become a Big Data Engineer, Business Intelligence Analyst, Data Scientist, Machine Learning Engineer, Research Scientist, Research Data Analyst, Product Manager, AI Engineer, Robotics Scientist, among others.
Renowned start-ups like Argo AI are also hiring for significant Artificial Intelligence roles. The top industry leaders who are currently hiring for AI professionals are:
- Amazon
- Apple
- DJI
- Anki
- Clarifai
- Deepmind
- Casetext
- DataVisor
If you have a technical background, you can do free courses on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning from Google, Stanford University, Columbia University, MIT and Nvidia. Click here to know more.
As you can see Artificial Intelligence is an integral part of our lives and it is here to stay. New scientific developments are making sure that it continues to enhance our tech experience and make our lives convenient.
Parimita is an author of a style guide, blogger at Mumbaigloss.in, content writer & creator, marketing & communications expert. She has been part of Indian IT giant TCS in the past and has worked in the marketing and content development for, High-Tech business unit. She has been a feature writer with several beauty, fashion, jewellery and lifestyle related print and online magazines like Femina.in, Be Beautiful, HAIR, World Gold Council, etc. She is actively spreading awareness about PCOS and Endometriosis.
