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We have heard the term artificial intelligence, or AI in short, many times. Pop culture has made some of us fear and hate it with films like I, Robot, while other works like A.I. Artificial Intelligence and The Matrix have presented us with a more nuanced look into the possible future of this technology.
We are not quite there yet though, so today we are going to discuss the latest developments in artificial intelligence and how they can be applied in multiple spheres to hopefully make our lives better.
Let’s start by discussing what AI actually is. No, it’s not always a humanoid robot with a complex personality like Data from Star Trek; it’s often so invisible that you’d be surprised to learn how often you actually encounter it in your daily life.
Artificial intelligence is a simulation of human intelligence that is processed by machines. Humans feed this system with tons of data and they train the system to learn how to apply it and predict future outcomes, as explained in layman terms. There are three main things AI has to do: it has to learn, to use reason, and to correct itself.
Let’s now give you a few examples on how various professional spheres use artificial intelligence.
If you’re an avid sports fan, you already know that AI is now used extensively in many sports, most of which are team sports. The AI referee is a complex system feeding off the material from the multiple cameras filming the game, noting each slight motion, and comparing it to the rules of the game.
There are, of course, still human referees, but if you’re a sports fan, you’re likely to have cursed at least one for their perceived errors. This is a subjective opinion, but based on recent research into NBA’s referee decisions, it turned out that NBA referees missed or made wrong calls in 8.2% of all reviewed calls, which is a big percentage.
Online gambling is another sphere into which AI is already incorporated. Operators vow for it and say that it makes gambling safer. There are, for example, AI-generated anti-fraud systems, there’s AI facial and voice recognizing software. Page customization can also be a product of AI. The more interesting use of AI is the AI casino assistant such as 888’s Amanda.
Amanda is a Siri-like assistant that not only offers answers to the most common questions and answers, but also provides help for unique situations like information about your own account or the bonuses that are available to you. In addition, Amanda looks for patterns that indicate gambling addiction and signals customer support who might restrict the account.
Although medical professionals spend years studying and then practicing their craft, they are still human and make mistakes. AI is thus the answer to some of the human errors in healthcare.
For instance, there’s AI that reads mammograms (X-ray pictures of breasts) and it’s 99% accurate. This was a much-needed tool, because research has shown that one out of two healthy women is told she has cancer after a mammogram. The AI-powered system thus reduces the number of unnecessary biopsies.
Two diagnostic AI programs, IBM’s Watson and Google’s DeepMind store medical data (personal, case studies, journals) from around the world and they constantly compare it, looking for patterns, and consequently, providing better patient advice. This feat was impossible to achieve without AI.
There are now many prototypes of self-driving cars making the rounds in big cities such as San Francisco. For now, they are being monitored by humans who can make quick decision if the car veers in the wrong direction, literally and figuratively. But how do they work exactly?
The AI software in the car connects to the internal cameras and sensors, as well as to GPS and services like Google Street View. It is meant to simulate human decision-making and supposedly make the roads safer.
However, self-driving cars are the least popular AI-powered systems on our list. A recent survey revealed that 86% of the interviewed would be afraid to ride in such a car. In addition, news concerning self-driving cars failing to detect pedestrians crossing the road, or in some cases, detecting them but still going forward, have noticeably worried the public.
Self-driving cars using AI might be unpopular, but AI-generated artworks are straight-up controversial to even discuss.
Returning to the introduction of this article, Will Smith’s character in I, Robot said the memorable line: ‘Can a robot write a symphony? Can a robot turn a canvas into a beautiful painting?’. At the time the film came out, viewers saw this statement in a comforting manner; robots can do manual tasks, but they can’t be creative, they lack our human soul.
Well, you might want to rethink that.
Recently, a Colorado art competition was won by an AI-painting, generated by MidJourney. The way it worked is that “the artist” typed word clues into MidJourney’s engine and the engine used its pattern-recognition and a big data base to create “Théâtre D’opéra Spatial”. Critics say that typing words does not make you an artist and that the engine plagiarizes other people’s works uploaded online.
The AI-engine did create a beautiful work, but it didn’t do it from scratch; so, there’s still some hope for us mortal humans, but future software might become even more complex and develop a style on its own.
