How You Can Make Your Daily Life Better With AI
So you might have read some of our recent AI articles pointing out how AI is already present everywhere. Unless you live completely off-grid (how are you reading this?) then some aspect of your life is undoubtedly touched by AI.
AI, in case you were wondering, refers to artificial intelligence. It's a branch of computer science that aims at getting computer systems to perform some of the same feats we can with human intelligence. This includes tasks like recognizing objects, understanding speech, learning through observation and discovering patterns and shortcuts in the natural world. AI is set to completely change the world and we are now wrestling with some of its more serious implications.
In fact, it's already one of the most impactful technologies ever created by humans. It's easy to think of AI as something that the big tech powers use for their own profit and, at times, to provide us with services, but you can also use AI more deliberately in your own life. To make it easier and more convenient. For every person and every lifestyle, there's some sort of applications that leverages AI for your personal needs. Here are a variety of examples that can help you start crafting that AI constellation to support you in whatever it is you like to do.
Get AI to Clean Your House
That's right, household robots are here. At the very least you can buy a robotic vacuum or floor washer that will use sophisticated algorithms to map out your home. OK, most people know about the Roomba and all its imitators, but what about the Alfawise Magnetic window cleaning bot? Robots can now mow your lawn too! Yes, we're still a long way away from proper robotic butlers, but at least some of those irksome household chores can now be done by a smart electronic device.
Make AI-Enhanced Content
Content creation is one of those areas we think of as being exclusive to human creativity. For now that's still largely true, but AI technology can now help people who lack the technical or artistic skill to create content much better than they could before.
Photography is a good case in point. Everyone would like to take amazing photos, right? However, to be a professional photographer you need a heap of technical and artistic understanding. Taking great photos is hard, but with an AI algorithm or two, you can take a very good photo with just a tap. Most popular camera apps and new phones have some elements of AI in their makeup, but some models like the Huawei P20 takes this further with dedicated AI acceleration hardware onboard. The point is if you want to instantly up your photography game it can't hurt to go looking for some digital assistance.
If you think it stops at creating still, think again. There are even AI video editing tools, such as Magisto. Using algorithms to recognize patterns in raw video material, the software can quickly cut together something serviceable.
You can even go abstract and use an application like Prisma to use deep learning technology that reimagines existing photos into something in an entirely different style. This goes way beyond simple Instagram filters and actually creates something new using the original as a rough inspiration.
Get AI-Infused Home Security
One of the most promising areas where AI can improve your life today is security. Most home security systems are, quite frankly, more than a little dumb. Motion sensors trip for any motion. Security cameras are only good for reviewing the crime, else they need someone permanently monitoring them live.
With AI, you can infuse these systems with the ability to interpret information. Machine vision gives us security cameras that can tell what they are looking at. So if a dog wanders through, no alarm. Likewise, if the system sees the face of a person who is meant to be there, that's A-OK. As soon as an unauthorized person comes into view, the system can use that information to do something about it.
Take the SimCam as an example of this trend. It has on-board AI facial recognition, which means it doesn't need a connection to the cloud in order to work. It can also recognize human figures with few or no false positives and proactively records and shares the footage with you immediately. The camera can also pan and track the intruder, keeping them in the frame. These were all things you needed a live human operator for not too long ago. Now with AI, it's like we can all afford professional security.
Let an AI Pick Your Entertainment
Have you ever heard of "choice paralysis" ? It happens when you are offered many options which all seem equally good. Because you can't decide which one you want, you end up choosing nothing at all!
This happens often with modern streaming media. It sounds awesome to have millions of songs and thousands of movie and TV titles just a click away, but where to begin? Which is why services like Netflix, Pandora, and other similar entertainment subscriptions have AI built into them to suggest content you're likely to enjoy. If you take the time to rate the things you watch honestly, the quality of the suggested media will also get better.
My suggestion here is that you actually submit to the algorithm and watch the stuff suggested to you, instead of trying to decide yourself. Yes, that sounds weird, but it's a good way to get rid of choice paralysis. Also, you only need to watch one episode or a few minutes of the content to decide whether you like it or not. Even watching a show you end up not liking is better than blankly staring at the menus watching nothing at all!
Create a ChatBot to Handle Tedious Conversation
Information overload is one of those modern curses that seems to have few practical cures. But, if technology is the source of the overload, why not use tech to stem the tide? If you need something to handle inquiries and otherwise boring or repetitive conversations while you sip on your favorite tipple, use a chatbot!
Chatbots are AI programs that can hold natural language conversations. While in the past you needed to have some serious programming chops to make one, these days you can put one together using special tools and online services. Whether you have a small business, or just want a simple tool that can answer things such as whether you are available or take messages, a bot is likely to be the answer.
Let a Digital Assistant Run Your Life
Siri, Alexa, Cortana, and the Google Assistant have all become household names by now. Despite some serious privacy issues. Smart devices all ship with at least one of these and you can always install the one you like more instead. These assistants not only provide a natural language interface to do things like set alarms and search the internet, but they can also intelligently help you schedule your life or make suggestions. For example, the Google Assistant uses predictive cards to offer you stuff it thinks you're going to ask for based on past behavior.
You can also offload plenty if your cognitive work on these tireless bots. Use them to remind you of anything, handle your scheduling and more. If you live in the right part of the world and use advanced tools such as Google Duplex, they can even buy your movie tickets, book hair appointments and other things that a real human personal assistant would do. You might be surprised how much of the tedious life-administration stuff we all have to do can now be automated with an AI assistant.
Get Accessibility Help
If you or someone you know has a disability there might actually be AI applications that can help. For example, Seeing AI from Microsoft can read whatever text you put in front of a camera. So if you have vision issues, now you can easily read any printed text out in the world. Whether it's a book in a library or a billboard. This technology can even use machine vision to tell you which objects you're looking at!
AI-based natural voice synthesis software can help people speak who have lost that ability too. We have come a long way from the software used by Professor Stephen Hawking. Modern voice synthesis is so good you can hardly tell it's computer-generated.
What about a wheelchair that drives itself? In 2018 Intel showcased a kit that would fit on most motorized wheelchairs. Using AI software and a RealSense depth-sensing camera, it's possible for someone to operate the chair using just facial expressions. AI technology has endless applications when it comes to helping people live with disabilities. In the future, we can expect to find it in medical devices such as prosthetic arms and artificial organs too. AI is even helping people on insulin better manage their blood sugar.
AI is Here To Stay, So You Might As Well Use It!
While some implementations of AI are definitely creepy and very smart people are worried about the long term dangers of AI, there's no stopping the adoption and development of it. So why not just go with the flow and enjoy the benefits of AI?
Do you have any uses in mind for AI? Let us know down below in the comments. Lastly, we’d like to ask you to share this article online. And don’t forget that you can follow TechNadu on Facebook and Twitter. Thanks!