Artificial Intelligence

Our Everyday Artificial Intelligence

As AI becomes a bigger and bigger part of our world, it's changing how we use technology and interact with each other.

Our Everyday Artificial Intelligence
Elaine Thompson / AP
SMS

AI is all around us, whether we’re aware or not. 

Some of our interactions with AI are obvious.

Digital assistants like Siri or Alexa have analyzed billions of voices to continually improve their understanding of language.

But other AI is developing in the background. Weather forecast models constantly compare their forecasts to the real weather to get better. 

Ridesharing apps like Uber use years of customer data to raise or lower prices in real time.

Camera software in your phone understands what it's seeing, and changes the color, contrast, and lighting for each photo. 

Mapping apps analyze billions of routes to suggest the fastest ones. Labeled satellite photos teach them to differentiate crosswalks, highways and buildings .

Google Maps, for example, detects when a driver brakes hard, identifying intersections where drivers are prone to dangerous behavior. 

Cellular phone networks use AI to route calls faster and more efficiently, while search engines use it to tailor results to each user.

Your email program uses AI to guess which messages are high priority,  and even to suggest phrases as you type.

the water company in Washington, D.C. uses AI to detect problems in their pumps, and Pepco, the city’s power company, uses AI to automatically reroute power and avoid outages.

As AI becomes a bigger and bigger part of our world, it’s changing how we connect at work.

Zoom calls rely on AI to choose which parts of an image to show in high resolution, to reduce audio noise, and to make virtual backgrounds.

And AI learns our preferences in music, video and, yes, for romantic partners.