The field of artificial intelligence (AI) is not a contemporary marvel but a profound discipline that has been in existence for decades. The journey began in the mid-1950s, a time when Elvis was all the rage and AI was just a fantastical concept at the Dartmouth Conference. Fast forward to today, and AI is no longer just a plot in sci-fi novels, it's the invisible hand sculpting our digital experiences.
This article delves into some pervasive examples of AI and Machine Learning (ML) that have become almost second nature to our daily lives, way before ChatGPT blew up the planet. These are Recommendation Engines, Natural Language Processing (NLP), and Object Detection.
But before we go there, it’s helpful to know where Generative AI sits in reference to the field of AI/ML. Hopefully Figure A is self-explanatory.
If AI is like a cosmic web, then machine learning is the pulsing heart, pumping out algorithms that grow smarter with each beat. Machine learning is central to many AI systems and applications, as it provides a way for these systems to automatically learn and improve from experience.
Deep Learning is the powerhouse within ML, flexing its neural network muscles to spawn the cool cousin, Generative AI (GenAI). While GenAI gets all the spotlight these days, the other ML subfields have produced tremendous economic value and consumer experience for decades. These are supervised learning, unsupervised learning, and reinforcement learning, each with its own techniques and applications. We will expand some other time.
Figure A
Here are three AI/ML examples that are second nature to our daily live:
Recommendation Engine
Recommendation engine is used by social media platforms (YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok). It is a sophisticated algorithm that analyzes user activity, such as the pages you like, videos you engage with, and your friends' interactions. It uses this data to suggest content that you might find interesting, creating a personalized experience and keeping you engaged on the platform.
In 2019, Meta open-sourced its DLRM model (Deep Learning Recommendation Model), a great contribution to advancement in this space. Interestingly, one month before this, Amazon launched Personalize to AWS customers. Amazon Personalize is a managed services that allow customers to create private, customized personalization recommendation for their applications. I am pretty sure Meta’s move was not a coincidence.
Natural Language Processing (NLP)
Bing Seach, where I used to work, uses natural language processing (NLP) to interpret user queries by analyzing the words, phrases, context, and meaning to find the most relevant web pages, documents, and videos. NLP enables search engines to deliver more accurate and context-aware results, improving the user's search experience.
In this 5 min read, Google explained how a neutral network-based technique for NLP – BERT helped advanced search in a significant way.
Object Detection, a subset of Computer Vision
There are light-weight object detection applications such as finding an animal in an image and classify them into different categories such as cats and dogs. There are also heavy-weight object detection applications that are often integrated with more sophisticated models such as neural networks. For example, autonomous driving identifies and tracks objects such as pedestrians, vehicles, and obstacles on the road. It enables self-driving vehicles to make real-time decisions to navigate safely, avoid collisions, and follow traffic rules by constantly monitoring and analyzing the surroundings for potential hazards and road conditions.
For those who want to geek out on the details, here is an article on Tesla’s self-driving algorithms.
As we stand on an AI-fueled future, these examples are but a glimpse into the transformative impact of AI and ML. As this technology becomes increasingly interwoven with the fabric of daily life, it is clear that AI is not a transient trend but cornerstone of our lives, like electricity. It’s a very exciting time that we are part of this journey, one that will reshape our world in a fundamental way.
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