Current State of AI
AI in Everyday Life
Since the release of ChatGPT in late 2022, AI has dominated technology headlines. However, while popular culture often presents AI in futuristic ways, more mundane AI systems are already embedded in many people's daily lives.
Even before ChatGPT, AI systems were being used commercially (and for fun) in numerous contexts, generally at corporate and industry levels, and as built-in services to consumers:
- Google search results
- Facial recognition systems
- Social media friend suggestions
- Navigation and driving directions
- Voice assistants (Alexa, Siri)
- Text-to-speech services
- Recommendation systems (YouTube, Amazon)
Behind the Scenes
Additionally, many people's experiences have been affected by AI in ways they might not realize. These include email spam filtering, online advertising, customer service chatbots, and song, video, or product recommender systems. Additionally, unbeknownst to most people, their experiences have likely been affected by AI in flight delay predictions, energy management and distribution, supply chains, sales forecasting, investments, legal forensics, and online article posting. AI systems are also increasingly being used in criminal justice, traffic management, medical insurance and diagnoses, and reviewing job applications.
Most, if not all, of these examples represent "narrow" or "weak" AI systems, since they focus on a few specific tasks or very specific domains of knowledge.