You’ve probably heard about the term artificial intelligence or AI for short. AI is changing the world as we know it, but what many people don’t realize—or at least don’t think about—is how many different ways AI can make an impact on our lives.

Applications of AI in our daily lives:

The term AI means a lot of things to a lot of different people, from robots coming to take your jobs to the digital assistants in your phone and home -- Alexa, Siri, and the rest. But sometimes AI’s existence can be so subtle and ubiquitous that we are taking advantage of it without even knowing it. Social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram use AI to send ads or recommendations to tailor your preference; Email Apps such as Gmail or Outlook offer a way to respond to emails with simple phrases like “Yes, I’m working on it.” or “No I have not. ” and automatically detect potentially fraudulent emails; Google Maps calculate traffic and construction in order to find the quickest route to your destination, this is also AI in action. The list can go on and on.

AI in the eyes of professionals:

But those who work with AI know that it is actually a term that encompasses a collection of technologies that include machine learning, natural language processing, computer vision, and more. The current favorite of AI research is machine learning, especially deep learning. Machine learning creates programs that use data to learn how to perform tasks. Instead of a developer who specifies instructions line by line in the form of programming code (conventionally programming), the machine learning program independently updates its code after the first trigger and optimizes it for a better result. The current favorite of the research discipline is so-called deep learning: machine learning with multi-layered neural networks that recognize patterns in data with increasing accuracy and thus learn human preferences, recognize objects or understand language.

Artificial neural networks are inspired by a rudimentary picture of the human brain: an algorithm creates different layers of connected nodes (just like neurons) that exchange information with each other. In simple terms, a neural network is made up of three distinct layers of Nodes connected by parameters known as Weights. Each of the layers performs a unique task which adds up together to give the network the ability to make predictions. These layers are namely, Input Layer, Hidden Layer and Output Layer.

AI makes our lives more efficient as it powers many programs and services that help us do our daily essentials.