The big idea and why it matters: For those of us not already overtly utilizing AI applications, artificial intelligence is still likely playing a behind-the-scenes role in our lives. There are many use cases, and by understanding more about those, it is likely each of us can find ways that AI can help on a daily basis.
“Artificial Intelligence will change the world” -Anonymous (countless people)
Per Google’s AI summary, the phrase “aye-yai-yai” can represent a variety of emotions, “including surprise, excitement, frustration, or attraction” – fitting for a description of artificial intelligence these days, as its potential use cases are many. I have no doubt that – whatever happens – AI will be responsible for invoking all those emotions and more. With the inspirational tailwinds of the new-ish year still upon us (and my attempt at an uplifting topic to help us through the remainder of winter for those of us enduring stretches of sub-20-degree days), today, let’s contemplate the potential for AI to improve our lives and how we can go about actually using it. Here we go!
If ridesharing is any indication…
As I arrived at the airport this morning, it dawned on me that – a handful of years ago – my airport transportation planning and payment routine looked much different than it does now. I used to preplan for a flight by calling a car service the night before. When it came time to pay at the airport dropoff, the driver would have to take a physical credit card machine out of the console (usually while grumbling about me not paying in cash) to make an imprint of my card. Then, I had to sit there for another few minutes while he called my card info into headquarters to charge my card before finally providing me with a paper receipt. It wasn’t a fun process, especially if I was running late.
For those of you who still live in the bliss of not having embraced technology, the modern equivalent looks incredibly different: Simply by tapping the screen on a smartphone, we can now run a real-time competition between Uber and Lyft (and also Wingz or regional competitors) to see which is the best value for a given ride. Then, with a few more phone taps, a car magically appears a short while later, and a credit card is charged for the ride automatically. It is wonderful.
…then we’re in for quite a ride.
As far as I’m aware, that life-changing ridesharing technology has little to do with the promise of AI. I bring it up because solutions like this already add an incredible amount of day-to-day convenience (and yet another reason for gratitude) to our lives, but – according to some predictions – should pale in comparison to what AI may have in store.
First thing first: what is AI?
“AI” is the ability for “machines to learn from experience, adjust to new inputs, and perform human-like tasks,” per this SAS article. Some subsets of AI include:
- Machine Learning: computers training machines (themselves?) how to learn, but also being able to interpret data/models. E.g., Self-driving cars and fraud prevention.
- Deep Learning (a subset of Machine Learning): described as “a type of machine learning that trains a computer to perform human-like tasks, such as recognizing speech, identifying images, or making predictions.”
- Natural Language Processing: interaction of computers and humans via natural language.
- Computer Vision: computers interpreting/understanding the visual world.
- Robotics: a combination of AI and mechanical engineering to perform tasks.
- Expert Systems: programs that mimic human experts (e.g., medical diagnostics).
Note: The above was sourced via a combination of the SAS article and my first use of Microsoft Copilot (an AI-powered assistant I’ll cover below).
It sounds like there’s a lot of overlap between the “subsets,” but – regardless – combining these ideas brings about the notion that we could simply converse with computers/machines in our natural language and have them help with many tasks spanning our digital and physical worlds. Admittedly, it sounds very exciting – IF AI can deliver on expectations (I’ll spare you the details, but I am disappointed with software capabilities daily, so forgive me if I approach all of this with some skepticism).
How do you use AI?
I will first come clean: I am a complete AI novice. Until I wrote this blog post, the extent of my direct AI usage was reading the AI summary, which now appears at the top of Google search results. Based on those results, however, AI is probably playing a more significant behind-the-scenes role in my life than I suspected:
Investments in AI have led to transformative advances now impacting our everyday lives, including mapping technologies, voice-assisted smart phones, handwriting recognition for mail delivery, financial trading, smart logistics, spam filtering, language translation, and more.
Beyond Google search, I don’t know how to use AI, so that is what I’m going to figure out now, along with some practical ways I may be able to incorporate it into my workflow – hopefully to our collective benefit.
Baby steps
As noted above, I stumbled into one access point for beginning to use AI: Microsoft Copilot. After considering a change for months, I’ve finally switched my web browser from Google Chrome to Microsoft Edge. That was mainly because Edge seems faster for some sites I use every day, and the browser tabs (of which I tend to have many open at any given time – 23 tabs at present 😊) utilize much less of my computer’s memory.
But this isn’t an Edge commercial. The reason it’s relevant is that there’s a little blue-and-red icon/button near the upper-right of the Edge browser that brings up Microsoft Copilot – and Copilot is an AI application. Pressing the Copilot button creates a sidebar within the Edge browser, and you can ask it anything. According to itself, it also “integrates with Microsoft 365 apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams. It helps users draft documents, create presentations, analyze data, and manage emails more efficiently by leveraging AI capabilities.”
At this point, I have no idea if it will become a more permanent fixture within my workflow, but having Copilot integrated into my browser to quickly questions could be more seamless than what I’ve done for years: leave the page I’m on and open a new browser tab to run a Google search. And if it plays a helpful role in all of these other Microsoft apps I use daily (e.g., Outlook, Word, Excel), then I’m all for it, but it’s very much TBD.
Next up
Now that we have a general lay of the land, next time, we’ll explore some hot AI topics, like Chat GPT, how we can “train AI,” and consider more areas where we should expect AI to infiltrate our lives.
Until next time, this is the end of alt.Blend.
Thanks for reading,
Steve
