Week 1 Assignments

Responses to questions in “Every Day AI Activity”:

Top three devices/digital services I use daily:

1. Instagram (iPhone)

2. Google Maps (iPhone & Mac)

3. KakaoTalk(iPhone & Mac)

One time, when I visited my Instagram account’s ‘Explore’ feed, I was surprised to find a lot of recommended content on things I was interested in during that time. For example, when I came back from Boston, I found a lot of photos of lobster rolls in my Instagram ‘Explore’ feed when I only searched for a restaurant on Instagram just once. It’s interesting how I can see my recent interests in just by looking at that.

AI Functions in:

1. Email Inbox: Reminding the user to reply to a message that’s been opened but not replied to yet. // Filtering spam messages.
2. Check depositing: Reading the numbers and information on physical checks and processing them in the bank mobile app.
3. Texting and mobile keyboards: Suggesting next words to type as the user types words on the keyboard.
4. Netflix: Recommending similar shows to what you’ve watched so far.
5. Google: Translating languages.
6. Social media platforms: Facial recognition features and suggesting new pages or content based on what you’ve clicked;
7. Automated message systems: Writing a text message in advance and scheduling it to send it at a specific time.

What do we have in by having Ai in our everyday lives? Every task is simplified according to our habits and interests, and we learn more about our own behavior and interests through contents recommended by AI. We also gain convenience within seconds in tasks that would otherwise take ages to accomplish.

What do we lose by having AI in our daily lives? We lose privacy as AI collects and stores our personal information.

Designing an AI system:

• Problem I am trying to address: Recommending healthy but delicious food for each meal everyday based on individual health needs.
• How can AI help solve this issue?: It would be in a form of a mobile app. An AI bot implemented in the app can recommend meals and recipes for each day every week based on what you have eaten for the past days and your dietary needs.
• What role will humans have in addressing the issue?: Contributing recipes for food that are healthy or meant for specific health issues.
• What data do you need to create an AI to help you address your issue?: Medical data that shows what’s needed to combat any health issues you have or data that shows what ingredient is beneficial for a health concern/desire you have.
• How will you responsibly gather this data in a way that respects individuals’ privacy and consent?: Before the individual submits his/her information (data), I would specifically inform the individual precisely what data is being collected and how it will be used.

Prototyping:

Embodying Social Algorithms

1. Describe a personal algorithm that you use in your life: Making a shopping list on my notebook on my phone and writing down what I need to buy.
2. Describe another algorithm that you could use to do the same task: Signing up for a subscription service so I won’t have to worry buying the same item over and over again and reminding myself to buy it.
3. Which of the two algorithms is the most efficient? How are you evaluating its efficiency?: I prefer the first algorithm of manually entering what I need to buy instead of signing up for a subscription service. Since I am a forgetful person, I could forget cancelling a subscription when I don’t need the item anymore.
4. Describe a personal algorithm that you use in your life: Researching moving companies for an upcoming apartment move and comparing prices while opening the websites on different tabs.
5. Describe another algorithm that you could use to do the same task: Going on TaskRabbit and having movers recommended to me and being able to compare prices in one glance.
6. Which of the two algorithms is the most efficient? How are you evaluating its efficiency? I find the TaskRabbit algorithm more efficient since it recommends movers based on the date I selected and the size of my move. I am also able to communicate with the mover through digital chat rather than waiting for moving companies to call me for a quote.
7. Describe a personal algorithm that you use in your life: Looking at food pictures on my Instagram’s ‘Explore’ feed and saving the pictures/restaurant with food that looks delicious
8. Describe another algorithm that you could use to do the same task: Going to Google or Yelp to find restaurants that serve my favorite food
9. Which of the two algorithms is the most efficient? How are you evaluating its efficiency?: Going to Google or Yelp to find restaurants is most efficient as it recommends the best restaurants near the location I entered. Instagram’s ‘Explore’ feed only shows delectable pictures of my favorite food regardless of where the restaurant is located.

Designing an algorithm that chooses the 5 most interesting and fun people:

What data or information can I use to figure out if someone is fun?

1. Type of content posted on social media or Youtube and the number of likes/followers/subscribers
2. The shows/entertainment that the person frequently watches.
3. Number of likes on the person’s comments in social media
4. Places that the person frequents (comedy shows, outdoor activities, etc.)
5. Number of friends

What data or information can I use to figure out if someone is interesting?

1. The person’s job
2. How many destinations the person has travelled to
3. Diversity/uniqueness of the person’s hobbies
4. Friend circle
5. Their habits

Fun People can be found in:

Location of data & What it is and how it identifies them:

1. Type of content posted online — Indicates the degree of the individual’s humor. The number of subscribers or likes indicate how many people find that person fun.
2. At comedy shows — Indicates how the individual seeks fun outside his work/academic life
3. Social Media — when the individual comments on a post or posts something on social media and it attracts a lot of likes, it indicates that person knows how to make a fun atmosphere.
4. Bars — the more they frequent the bar, the more it shows they’re social and like to have fun.

Interesting people can be found in:

1. Travel destinations — More travel records, the more it shows that they are adventurous and willing to explore new places. Also indicates that they’re not lethargic.
2. Blogs — More well-kept or more posts there are, the more it shows how much that person is trying to create new and different posts about a certain topic, rather than repetitive posts.
3. Books — More books show how much the author or the person the book is based on is creative or worth portraying in something that is read by the public.
4. School clubs — More school clubs the person is involved, the more it indicates how the members are dedicated to a certain cause and have various reasons in joining the clubs.

Steps to generate desired output:

1. Gather & Collect Data. Sort according to fun or interesting.
2. Most points go to social media. The person with the highest number of followers and likes gets priority.
3. Second most points go to how diverse the content are and how well-kept personal blogs/profiles are.
4. People who satisfy #2 and #3 are the winners!

Who would be left out of the algorithm: People who don’t post regularly, people who are lethargic and don’t go out or prefer to stay within their comfort zone.