Artificial Intelligence For Dummies

Chapter 5

Seeing AI Uses in Computer Applications

IN THIS CHAPTER

Defining and using AI in applications

Using AI for corrections and suggestions

Understanding potential AI errors

You have likely used AI in some form in many of the computer applications you rely on for your work. For example, talking to your smartphone requires the use of a speech recognition AI. Likewise, an AI filters out all that junk mail that could arrive in your Inbox. The first part of this chapter discusses AI application types, many of which will surprise you, and the fields that commonly rely on AI to perform a significant number of tasks. You also discover a source of limitations for creating AI-based applications, which helps you understand why sentient robots may not ever happen — or not with the currently available technology, at least.

However, regardless of whether AI ever achieves sentience, the fact remains that AI does perform a significant number of useful tasks. The two essential ways in which AI currently contributes to human needs is through corrections and suggestions. You don’t want to take the human view of these two terms. A correction isn’t necessarily a response to a mistake. Likewise, ...