Artificial Intelligence in the everyday life

*beep beep beep*

6.15 AM. You wake up to your alarm clock — after three beeps you tap your smartphone to shut the buzzer. As you hold your phone, the screen beams a white glossy light at your face.

*Face recognized*

“Hey Google, read me the latest news,” you murmur in a sleepy voice.

*Okay. Here is the latest news by BBC…*

You open your email. In the background, a human-like female voice is delivering the morning BBC news to you: “Bynd Venture Capital has closed a new investment in Iberia, …”

Your inbox has 32 new emails and most of them popped up during the night — a usual number for your fast-paced life, but with the help of Google’s quick replies, you get rid of the most important ones in a heartbeat.

You get up and head to the kitchen, while BBC gives you the latest report on the potential impact artificial intelligence (AI) might have on the economy.

*According to the most recent study…*

“AI is eating the world, Charlie,” you mumble while pouring some food in your dog’s bowl, “No robot will ever replace you.”

But is AI that awful? We tend to think of AI as an evil technology, but what we don’t realize is that this technology has a tremendous impact on making our lives easier. For instance, in this morning routine, AI was used three times: in the face recognition software, the Google Assistant handing you the morning news and the Gmail quick replies tool.

Many companies use machine intelligence to provide you their best predictions — Google is one of the most advanced is this technology. When you begin to type a term on its search engine and Google suggests how to complete your search, that’s AI. Moreover, when you’re searching for information, Google often hands you a highlighted answer to your question — that thousands or millions of other Internet users found helpful. This is also AI.

But how does it work?

According to Daniela Braga, DefinedCrowd’s founder and CEO, AI works just like a kid who’s learning to ride a bicycle: “At first, when you’re learning, you have someone helping you, but then you’ll start riding it on your own and understanding how to accelerate, brake and dodge obstacles. The same thing happens with AI: you feed it with data, so the computer understands how to work, and then it begins to understand how to react to different situations. AI is the simulation of how the human brain is wired and learns through life — it’s basically an artificial brain. On the other hand, machine learning is the toolset that allows that learning to happen.” Her startup developed a Crowd-as-a-Service intelligent data platform that works with global brands like BMW, MasterCard and Randstad.

To give you an example, when you first registered on Facebook, the algorithm didn’t know much about you, but as you started using this social network more often, more information was captured, which made the algorithm serve you with more tailor-made content. This happens with Facebook and other social media platforms, but also with services like Spotify and Netflix.

Voice is coming

Intelligent assistants are another modern-day solution that emerged with the AI revolution. Did you send a text message to a brand recently? Considering that these corporate tools, which automate customer support, are swiftly spreading across the enterprise landscape, there’s a chance the answer was given by a chatbot — one kind of virtual assistant that focuses on text. Essentially, according to Daniela, these are “virtual agents that simulate a human, understand your questions and respond to you in real-time without you having to be in a queue to get an answer for your questions”, as DefinedCrowd’s CEO explains. However, the most impressive solutions are speech-based, like Google Assistant, Siri and Alexa. “They are in your car, in your phone, in your house and even in concierges of hotels and airports, sometimes,” Daniela explains.

From home appliances, to vehicles that already drive by themselves, on our smartphones and apps, chatbots and even in city center with high-tech CCTV systems that incorporate machine intelligence to track down people, AI is everywhere. But for DefinedCrowd’s CEO, the future will be voice enabled. “We will be talking to all the devices that surround us: whether you’re running out of food and your fridge will notify you, while also facilitating an order of groceries immediately for the next day, or maybe you’re in your room and you’re talking to the TV. The applications are endless. It’s really a voice enabled future with faster and better user experience — whether you’re talking to your own devices or to enterprises.”