How Machine Learning is Changing our Daily Activities
What does Artificial Intelligence decode to in terms of normal day life? From the use of virtual assistants to check the weather, to have self-driving cars, trains, and even planes. Machine learning is creating new concepts and applications in every field in our society.
In the most recent Google I/O, they announced their new product, Google Lens, that gives a brand new and out-of-the-way definition to searching. Google Lens give users the ability to get information by just pointing their cameras at the item/ place. For example, if you point your camera at a restaurant, Google Lens will generate information on the ratings of this restaurant; what dishes are served tonight; which dishes are recommended by customers, etc. It can also access all of your old photos stored in Google Photos, and produce a cluster of new information for them.
As a traditionally labeled search company, Google is rebranding itself to a VR, virtual assistant, and most importantly, an AI company. So we think and talk about, how deeply is artificial intelligence embedded in our day to day life in 2017? How does machine learning simplify our daily activities? Like the direction Google Lens leads us to, according to Yann LeCun, the next steps of machine learning revolves around understanding by simply observing the world. Or in other words, execution based on visions.
Yes. This means a computer vision can interpret and learn information from Youtube videos on their own. And if we think about this on a larger scale, an AI-powered intelligence can learn and study information available to the general population, at a much faster pace. This might sound quite problematic for some people. But don’t worry, there are still unsolved issues for an intelligent system to communicate and interpret as we do. The reason for that is, a vision does not equal to common sense. AI visions can analyze information related to the vision if there’s background data provided. However, this information can be unrelated and random. From generating information to making a critical decision on what information to pursue, is still unsuccessful for most AI prototypes.
On the bright side, there are many active and influential uses of AI in a person’s daily life instead of the bigger questions we ask about, like “AI taking over the world.” For instance, you can take a selfie in an app that automatically adds on a filter to make you smile, or to get rid of your wrinkles, or to swap your gender in the pictures.
Virtual assistants like Siri, Google Now who answers to “how much wood could a woodchuck chuck”, and looks up the nearby gas stations for you are also AI-powered. In fact, almost all kinds of complex video games that react to your behaviors and create personal stimuli for your character involves artificial intelligence. There are self-driving cars to get you, and more importantly, the ones with disabilities to places; there are banks that implement fraud detection algorithms to protect your financial security.
The truth is, your smartphone, your car, your financial institutes, and your entertainment resources all apply artificial intelligence on a daily basis. Sometimes it’s obvious what it’s doing, like when you ask Siri to get you directions to a drugstore. Sometimes it’s less obvious, like when you make a crazy purchase on your credit card in Paris and don’t get a fraud alert from your bank. AI is embedded deeply in our lives; and will soon become irreplaceable in our daily activities.