Is Artificial Intelligence Becoming The Norm In Our Smart Products?



The whole idea of artificial intelligence has existed in science fiction for decades with it showing up in popular films like Blade Runner in the 1980s, I Robot in the early 2000s, and now it is in basically every film and novel that even mentions the future. But the idea of artificial intelligence not in a ‘robot’ type body but within our smart devices and our workplaces has already become a reality. And as this technology advances it will be interesting to see if all of the fears surrounding automation will actually occur. So how is artificial intelligence involved in your everyday life?

Alexa and Siri
Alexa and Siri are both considered smart devices and are connected via the Internet of Things (IoT). If you ask them to do something like unlock your door, turn on your air conditioning, or tell you what the weather is they will do it no problem. All you need to say is “Alexa/Siri what is the weather today?” But this will change in the future to become an artificial intelligence that can anticipate your needs rather than simply following orders. It’s starting to sound like all of those sci-fi movies now isn’t it? The whole idea of AI in our daily lives is that it is a tool to make everything more convenient for us.

Security
One of the big advances that will be seen in the coming years actually has to do with the security itself. You can have smart locks that allow you to provide digital keys to guests which you can also revoke if you no longer want them having access. But this still does not mean that the lock can actually know WHO the person entering the door is, the code associated with the digital key tells the owner who the person is. Now, AI would be able to visually recognize a person or their biometric print when entering a property and be able to decide for themselves, from an owner approved list in theory, who can and cannot enter without the need for a digital key. Those involved with AI security believe that this would allow for security to be taken out of human hands which would mean guards would not need to be viewing live footage.

Problems?
It all seems far fetched now but the future is one of automation. Cars can already drive and park themselves, software is being created that uses machine learning to actively teach itself what it needs to know on an ongoing basis which means that a world where devices can think for themselves and assess a person’s needs are right around the corner. Is this terrifying, fascinating or both? Only time will tell.