Demystifying AI
Spoiler: Robots wrote this blog post.
In the new Top Gun movie, Ed Harris’ character, Hammer, tells Maverick: “The end is inevitable, Maverick. Your kind is headed for extinction.” Pilots are soon going to be obsolete, replaced by computers. It’s not a new plot line. We’ve been hearing about the computers taking over well before 2001: A Space Odyssey’s HAL was the archetype. However, with all the buzz around Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, that reality all of a sudden feels closer than ever.
Artificial intelligence is already impacting our lives in remarkable ways.
The term AI can feel both overblown and overwhelming, but there is no doubt it’s changing the way we live our lives - and this isn’t as bad a thing, despite what Maverick may think. Applied AI is in everything from search engines to self-driving cars, and will only continue to grow in the coming years.
What exactly is artificial intelligence? There are many definitions of AI, but Google defines it as: "the theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages."
We've seen some headline grabbing moves in the past decade like AlphaGo beating Lee Sedol at Go (a game viewed by some as more complex than chess) and IBM's Watson winning Jeopardy! But there are also some really cool applications happening in our everyday lives that you may not even realize.
In fact, a good portion of this blog post was generated using copy.ai where, with just a few inputs, you can create fairly baked marketing content from product descriptions to ad copy to blogs (how meta is that?)
AI can help tell you what movie you really want to watch, or your best color of lipstick.
Did you know that over 80% of Netflix stream time originates from its personalized recommendation system? Netflix uses AI-driven machine learning to provide recommendations based on what people have watched and enjoyed in the past. This type of seamless personalization is what makes a great customer experience and creates lasting fans of your brand, all made possible by AI.
Another great example of AI aiding in creating an exceptional customer experience is Sephora’s chatbot, Kik. After realizing that many customers were overwhelmed in the shopping process and seemingly endless product options, Sephora launched an interactive, conversational chat to guide customers through their decisions and offer product suggestions based on answers. This ultra-personalized AI-powered chatbot includes a virtual color match assistant, a reservations assistant, and make-up tips and advice.
AI can help you be prepared and even save your life.
While creating an exceptional customer experience is important, the potential of AI extends far beyond brands and marketing. AI can help detect cancer earlier than human doctors can. With the help of machine learning, AI has been able to detect many types of cancer early on before they even have time to spread through the body or cause serious damage, allowing doctors and researchers more time for treatment than if they had waited until after symptoms start showing up.
Ironically, people are still skeptical of AI, believing a diagnosis from a doctor supported by AI less than a doctor alone. Clearly we have some robot trust issues to work through.
AI can also be used to predict when traffic accidents are likely to occur so that officials can take necessary steps in advance and prevent them from happening at all. And it's also been shown that if you give an AI system enough historical weather data about your region, it will be able to predict what tomorrow's weather will look like with 99% accuracy, allowing people to better prepare for extreme weather events.
AI is not as smart as humans.
While AI has the incredible potential to change the world, in both big and small ways, it’s important to stress that there are areas where it will never fully replace humans (i.e. fears of the robots taking over are almost certainly over-blown in a vast majority of cases). Perhaps the most important of these is our ability to make decisions. Humans are able to weigh different options and values and then make an informed decision that best aligns with their goals. This type of decision-making requires an understanding of all potential outcomes, which isn’t possible for a computer in some cases (like when they have to deal with something completely new).
Another key area where humans excel over machines is recognizing emotions or communicating them. Most people don’t have any trouble expressing their thoughts and feelings in writing or speech; it comes naturally to us! Emotion-based expression allows for greater creativity than simply following rules set forth by others (like how computers do). So while your iPhone's Siri might be smart enough to answer all your questions, she won't be able to tell you how she feels about them.
AI is ultimately meant to increase productivity, enhance personalization, optimize efficiency, and in some cases, save lives. It's also a fundamentally important tool that can improve our lives and our businesses. But there are limitations to this technology as well—the most fundamental of which is that no machine can really be human. At least not yet.
Some more of our favorite applied AI use cases:
Heinz asks DALLE-2 to “draw ketchup” to show that even computers think the brand and the product are synonymous
Companies like Starship and Serve are reinventing how we get our food and groceries delivered with sidewalk robots
Using AI to run a fun fashion tutorial
source: Sequoia