Artificial Intelligence plays an increasingly broad set of roles in modern society. Roughly defined, AI is any intelligence displayed by a machine. It is, however, inexorably linked to machine learning and the ability of machines to make complex conclusions based on multiple sources of evidence. AI is not limited to robotics applications but is rather diverse in its use. Here are five fascinating modern uses of Artificial Intelligence.
Video Transcription
Companies like Verbit have recently started to offer video transcription services that utilize AI to create subtitles and transcripts that are accurate to both content and context. Before the introduction of AI, video transcription would have to be done by a human watching and typing out the contents of a video. Video transcription is important for the creation of multilingual captions and full transcripts that can help make videos far more accessible to people with disabilities.
Video Sharpening
Artificial Intelligence is often used to restore and resharpen old and damaged video footage. Perhaps the most well-known example of this is Peter Jackson’s use of AI to augment footage of World War 1 for inclusion in his documentary ‘They Shall Not Grow Old’. Jackson and his team of editors fed grainy, low frame rate footage taken in the early 20th Century into an Artificially Intelligent program that filled in gaps, colorized the footage, and produced smooth, clear digital video.
Healthcare
AI is increasingly being utilized in healthcare for all sorts of complex tasks. One of the most prevalent uses of AI in the field is as part of the diagnosis process. Artificial intelligence can analyze tissue, blood, or a scan far more quickly (and more accurately) than a single human medical professional.
Artificial Intelligence is already outperforming humans at diagnosing malignant tumors. Healthcare is the area in which AI might be capable of doing the most good if it is developed correctly.
Legal Analysis
Until recently, junior lawyers would often be tasked with pouring over legal documents in order to help with a case. Today, Artificial Intelligence is used to scan documents for useful or contradictory information intelligently.
Musical Composition
Because Artificial Intelligences are able to learn by necessity, they have been testbeds for the creation of art – most impressively, music. Initiatives such as the Google Magneta project and the Watson Beat have utilized AI to compose music, either by allowing an AI to ‘listen and learn’ from other music or by instilling ‘deep belief’ in the AI in the hope that this will provoke some kind of creative output.
The creating of music using AI technology raises some interesting questions about the nature of art and external human intelligence. What does it mean to make art and interpret what you have learned about the world and yourself?
Most of the music composed by AI is relatively poor quality and lacks the fallibility of human-composed music. As AI technology becomes more and more advanced, we may see music of a wonderous and soulful kind produced by non-human beings.