Today we will talk about Artificial Intelligence, the applications it has in our daily lives and how it affects or will affect our lives and society. 

New technologies are always involved in a dilemma that is never easy to solve, the emergence of a technological breakthrough always raises the debate of whether they are a benefit or a curse for humanity and in recent months this discussion has resumed with the emergence of free and easily accessible AI, which is why today we will review what AI means for our daily lives. 

What are AIs and what are their applications?  

AIs are not new, they have been with us for some time now, however the hype of the last few months is due to the fact that this technology is more accessible to the general public, so we have been flooded with images and texts created by these technologies in a few months.  

AI is a set of algorithms that aim to mimic or act in imitation of human intelligence to accomplish a task in a specific way. This technology is nurtured by extensive databases that analyze and process to give answers or results as a human would, but in a matter of seconds. 

Currently the most prominent uses are related to creative tasks such as writing and illustration. However, the research and development of Artificial Intelligence aims to apply it to all aspects of our daily lives. In fact, you may already be using this technology in your daily life, as it is used in virtual assistants or in the neural networks of Google and social networks to predict what content you will like the most or what advertising you are most interested in. 

 

Uses of AI in our daily life 

There are a wide variety of uses of artificial intelligence that are present in our day-to-day lives, thanks to being embedded in smart devices or within other software. These are just a few examples of the most common uses of AI today. 

Photography 

Photography, and in general the creation of images, is a field where artificial intelligence has made great strides, for example devices such as Huawei smartphones have an AI incorporated into the photographic software to improve photographs from the moment you take them, so thanks to an AI your images are clearer and sharper, even in motion. 

Thanks to artificial intelligence today we can colorize old photos that were in black and white. Also, it is able to digitize old videos and images, although this was a job that was done manually, AI uses Deep Learning to recognize objects, the color and tonality of the photograph and colorize the rest in seconds. 

Video games 

Video games are pioneers in the use of new technologies and Artificial Intelligence is no exception. Today video games use AI for more than just creating bots, for example to modify the game experience according to the player’s skills, thus changing the degree of difficulty according to the player’s skill; if you are a regular player of Resident Evil 4, The Last of Us: Part 2 or Mario Kart 8 you have surely noticed this. Game developers have also added AI to detect cheats and cheating players in their games.  

Another very promising application of Artificial Intelligence is the creation of randomized scenarios, so every time you play you will be immersed in a new scenario with completely different colors, objects, flora and fauna, this technology can already be seen in Minecraft or No Man’s Sky.   

Undoubtedly, these first approaches with artificial intelligence seem positive and productive for our daily lives, but recently some applications have questioned its usefulness and its benefit for society in general. 

Are AIs going to take your job? 

As you probably already know, we have been using artificial intelligence for several years, but it is only with the appearance of software such as ChatGPT or Dall-E2 that a question has arisen: can AI replace editors, copywriters and illustrators?  

The answer to this question is not simple and certainly not absolute. Both software, developed by OpenAL, are free and as easy to use as Google. On a first approach these AIs seem to do their job very well, i.e. Cht GPT creates complex, well-written and coherent texts in seconds, while Dall-E2 creates creative and eye-catching images from texts. In fact, the work of another illustration AI, Midjourney proved so creative that it won an art contest. 

For many users, they represent a revolution in their field, as well as a real danger for the work of creatives. In fact, the possibility of replacing professionals such as copywriters, ghostwriters, illustrators and graphic designers with these softwares began to be considered, since the work could be delivered with the same quality, but in less time. 

In a few weeks, AI-generated images and texts flooded social networks and websites, this helped users to evaluate the detail and accuracy of these works, so we began to realize that AI-generated images had errors such as 8 fingers on the hands or smiles with more than 32 teeth, while people oriented to writing realized that the texts had erroneous or unreliable data, also lacked empathy and in some cases contained a high percentage of plagiarism. In addition, Google didn’t seem to know what to do with blogs that used AI-generated content.     

These details have shown that for now the work of creatives, both copywriters and illustrators, is safe and especially if they are able to generate high quality content and empathy. However, it is a fact that artificial intelligence has arrived to revolutionize the way we work and can be a tool in creative work. 

A working tool 

It is true that in many jobs the replacement of personnel by AI is still a long way off, but it is also true that they are an important tool that cannot be neglected. 

While tools like Midjourney or Dall-E2 have some flaws, they can be used to optimize work time, i.e. they can be an excellent way to sketch customer specifications, which can then be refined and detailed by the design team. 

On the other hand, AI writing tools can be useful to get out of creative blocks, as they can give some ideas to start working on. In fact, some programmers use them to generate code or solve doubts and it seems that in this aspect they do a good job.     

Does AI reduce our creativity? 

Another argument against AI is that many students are using them to do homework or write school papers, which has led to the question of whether the use of AI reduces creativity or at least diminishes certain skills.  

The appearance of a new technology, especially when it is within the reach of young people, always raises the same doubt, because in the end that technology serves to facilitate a task. The same doubt arose with the use of the Internet or the computer itself, however time has shown us that they have become tools to take our creativity to another level, and as an example we can cite the technology applied in the cinema. 

Without green screen technology, Alfonso Cuaron would not have been able to film Gravity, or without deepfake technology in Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, some of its charm would have been lost. 

Perhaps for now, the use of AI by students and the younger ones seems a threat, its use should not be condemned, in fact we should create new strategies that help them to make a responsible use, allowing them to combine AI with their skills.      

 

AI is more than a fad or a trend, even though there is still a long way to go, it is a technology that in the not too distant future will be essential in many areas of our lives. Rejecting it or slowing it down is a mistake and the best thing to do is to learn about it in order to use it responsibly. Tell us, what do you think is or will be the most important advance of AI in our daily lives?