6 areas where artificial intelligence is already being used
Artificial intelligence (AI) has become one of the most discussed technology topics of this decade. The range of stories in the media spans from dizzying possibilities worthy of science fiction films to apocalyptic visions of a robot-dominated world and the extinction of the human species. While visionaries indulge in speculations, AI is steadily making its way into new industries, finding applications in offices, factories, and educational institutions. Here's a look at 6 areas where decision-making machines are already part of everyday life.
Online shopping
Many of us may not even realize that we already encounter AI in our daily lives. For example, when searching for information on something using internet search engines, the most relevant results are selected by an algorithm that learns from our choices. The smarter and more trained the algorithm is with requests, the more accurately it will select exactly what we need. Ideally, AI should work in such a way that it seems as if the search engine is reading our minds.
Machine learning solutions are also used in various video services. They learn our tastes and suggest the most suitable movies, series, or concert recordings.
AI is gradually taking over online stores as well. Until now, it was common for a shopping site to remember our interest in a particular product and, when we return to the site, immediately offer the same product, even if we recently purchased it. However, more advanced stores using AI solutions are now taking it a step further. Once they register that you've purchased, for example, a new phone, the next time they'll offer accessories specifically for that phone, a smartwatch, and similar items, rather than another identical phone.
Customer service
The opportunity to encounter a "thinking robot" in daily life also exists on various e-commerce websites, where visitors are seemingly addressed by a customer service specialist. Often, the conversation is initiated not by a real person but by a chatbot that answers standard questions. A specialist joins only if the conversation develops into a specific topic and the bot cannot provide suitable answers. Chatbots are continuously trained and are becoming increasingly smarter. Therefore, they can successfully handle many simple conversations without human involvement. As is known, chatbots are also developed by "Tilde."
Finance and banking services
Banks perform thousands of money transfers every day. How can one notice whether all transactions are legitimate? Is someone shopping with a stolen credit card or its data? Various computerized solutions have been used for some time to detect suspicious payments, and now AI solutions are increasingly being involved in the analysis. For example, "MasterCard" does this. Their artificial intelligence and deep learning solutions search for parameters characteristic of fraudulent transactions within millions of payments and flag them for specialists, who analyze each case.
Machine learning algorithms are also making deeper inroads into stock markets, analyzing changes in securities prices and predicting future price fluctuations. By processing vast amounts of data, machines look for similar conditions in past records and evaluate the development scenarios that followed.
Agriculture
Although agriculture and livestock farming do not typically associate with modern technologies for most people, large farms in wealthy countries are actively implementing AI solutions to produce food as efficiently as possible. For example, the company "Blue River Technology" has developed the "See&Spray" robot, which uses computer vision to monitor plantations and independently sprays weed control agents.
Meanwhile, the German company "PEAT" has created the "Plantix" solution, which analyzes soil based on images and determines what nutrients are lacking in the soil.
Video games
The entertainment industry has long awaited the opportunity to captivate people with futuristic solutions such as virtual and augmented reality and AI. Therefore, it does not hesitate to embrace new opportunities. The first milestones were the "Deep Blue" supercomputer created by "IBM," which defeated then-world chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1997. Since then, the world has witnessed several brilliant AI achievements, such as the "AlphaGo" program developed by "DeepMind," which defeated the legendary "Go" champion, Korean Lee Sedol.
Now AI is being integrated into video games accessible to a wide range of users, where gameplay is created in real-time depending on circumstances, rather than adhering to a pre-designed scenario. One such game is "F.E.A.R."
Space exploration
Since its inception, space exploration has been equipped with the most advanced technologies, and many inventions have later found their way into household use. AI is no exception in this regard. It analyzes data obtained by the Kepler telescope to identify distant planetary systems and will be used in NASA's 2020 Mars mission. An AI-equipped rover will spend much of its time independently collecting information about the red planet, making decisions on where to go and what analyses to perform.