Every day there have been lots of strange, scary things in the news about Artificial Intelligence.

I touched on some of this in a post a couple of weeks ago. Mostly, or so it seems, these scary ideas are coming from Elon Musk warning the world of killer robots while simultaneously teaching AI how to teach itself. But today I wanted to touch on the ways that AI has already been integrated into services and tools without deadly repercussions. And so I present to you:

A Bunch of Ways AI Has Already Infiltrated Our Lives!

1.) Shopify

The leading eCommerce platform and the trendsetter in many ways is Shopify. And they have a couple of integrations that we haven’t yet had the privilege of testing but are conceptually cool none the less.

The first one is Artificial Intelligent Bot. This Bot (only available in Facebook eCommerce Shopify Integrated Shop) uses Facebook Messenger to answer customer questions. If things get too complicated the Bot will reach out to the site admin for customer assistance.

The second is Choice AI. This app uses an in-store widget to create a brick and mortar experience that tracks your customer’s habits as they browse and purchase through your shop.

The third is Kit. This app is specifically designed for Facebook, and by default Instagram, to accomplish marketing and retargeting. It drives customer engagement by tailoring the advertising approach to individual customer interests.

2.) Amazon

This one may not come as any surprise but Amazon tracks all of your shopping habits so it can more effectively suggest items you might like to purchase. Once you make a purchase they use AI to fulfill that order at distribution centers as efficiently as possible. Looking ahead they are also interested in changing the way grocery stores work with Amazon Go. Obvious.

3.) Facebook

Facebook used facial recognition software to identify and tag people right away. Something Europe and Canada have complained about.

4.) Netflix

Netflix is not so different from Amazon in that it tries to determine what else you might be interested in watching based on the things you’ve already watch combined with other data.

5.) Siri, Cortana, Alexa

The three of them are ultimately designed to answer questions and provide assistance with map navigation and search engine queries. I know I’m not the only one who has found at least one of the three to be occasionally ineffective. But it’s only a matter of time until you can have full on conversations. Maybe.

And there we have it.

With all of these great tools at our disposal, it’s easy to get comfortable with the idea of Artificial Intelligence being a part of our every day lives. And frankly, I don’t think the rise of AI will ultimately lead to the destruction of the human race. After all, the programmers of these technologies are only human. For now…

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