When talking about artificial intelligence (AI), many people first think of all sorts of future scenarios. The use of AI has long been commonplace. Everywhere, companies and private users rely on technologies that are driven by artificial intelligence. Science is currently also relying on the help of supercomputers, AI and machine learning in the fight against the corona virus, as recently reported among others by the Bavarian Radio (BR).
What is artificial intelligence?
"Artificial intelligence is a generic term for methods that aim to automate decision-making processes that traditionally require the use of human intelligence," explains the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI). Technology is therefore used, among other things, to take on previously purely human tasks and thus to accelerate and facilitate research and everyday tasks.
Tobias Wessels, formerly at Google and now at tech company Bespoke, continues: "Traditional computer programs run on the basis of human logic, which is already predefined in the code. AI / machine learning is not just the execution of this human logic, it fits the code itself. "
All the knowledge in the world
More and more companies are offering their customers virtual assistants or so-called chatbots on their website, which should help users with all their questions – regardless of whether it concerns contract issues or general points about products and services. Bespoke has developed an AI-powered chatbot ("Bebot") that, among other things, supports the Japanese government in the corona crisis. For example, users receive extensive information on current regulations and the like. "Bebot" was originally developed for the tourism industry and is also used, for example, in the Tokyo metro.
AI is also used in search engines. If a user quickly googles for a picture of the British comic cult group Monty Python ("The Life of Brian"), the search engine reliably spits out photos of John Cleese (80) and his colleagues – and not of Python snakes. These images are not human-made. An AI helps to understand queries, classify them correctly and deliver suitable results. Thanks to the technology that has been used for years, this often works even if users make a mistake or do not know a name exactly. The AI learns independently and can answer queries more and more with time.
Hey Google, what is AI?
The use of so-called voice assistants such as Amazon's Alexa, Apple's Siri and Google's Assistant has become particularly popular in recent years. A study by Postbank, in which just over 3,100 people were interviewed, had already shown in summer 2019 that almost a third of all people in Germany were using such language assistants at that time. These are also AI-based and should, for example, get used to the habits of their users and of course also provide useful answers to questions asked in the context.
"There are countless services that have been using the advantages of AI for many years," confirms Wessels, "including email providers who usually use a certain type of spam filter." Artificial intelligence also helps here and should, for example, make it possible to filter unwanted advertising and more without users having to worry about deleting them manually.
This is the right film
Wessels has another example ready. Important services are also "recommendation services such as Netflix or Spotify", which are often based on a "similarity comparison of data". "Conventional software was extremely bad at this because no one could come up with a complete set of rules that could grasp all the nuances that describe such complex data. But thanks to AI, which learns simply through examples, such comparisons have become commonplace and very precise . "
Face recognition is also based on algorithms and AI. After a – at best short – training session, artificial intelligence reliably recognizes facial features and can identify them correctly. Appropriate technologies are used for example in many iPhones and Android smartphones. Users can use their face to unlock their device and can therefore do without entering a personal identification number (PIN).