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Introduction to Artificial Intelligence

When you think of artificial intelligence (AI), you probably call to mind a TV show like “Fringe” or a movie involving robots. The applications of the technology usually seem complex, and they typically involve a criminal mastermind or the military. Perhaps you think of your iPhone’s talk-to-text feature or your smart TV. AI appears in many of today’s electronic devices.

What is Artificial Intelligence?

Artificial intelligence isn’t always as complicated as the science fiction computer characters HAL and Mike make it out to be. AI consists of numerous technologies such as machine learning pulled together to create a human-like intelligence in a computer or other electronic machine. These technologies mimic in the machine the way the human mind works. Rather than just programming a computer to follow commands, artificial intelligence provides it the ability to intellectually gather data to emulate human perception. Its complex programming goes beyond essential if-then statements to allow the computer or device to learn using electronic cognition patterns to problem-solve and make its own decisions without the intervention of a human being or another device.

Common Misconceptions of AI

While many individuals assume that an AI device must talk or hear the speech to learn, this is a fallacy. The bots set up by your marketing team to draw cash register data information represent one form of AI research. The smart technology used in the latest refrigerators that monitors your food for you to provide an alert when your milk goes bad represents another form of AI.

Artificial intelligence teaches a device to recognize objects, understand and respond to languages like Siri and Cortana do, solve problems, make decisions, etc. What AI algorithms do not do is mimic completely human intellect and emotion. Artificial intelligence cannot replace people.

You’ve probably come across this in a way when you used Siri or Cortana which rely on deep learning. They only recognize certain words or commands. Also, unlike a human, they constantly listen, meaning they eavesdrop. They must respond to voice commands and unlike a human, cannot be in a room on the other side of the house and hear your voice. Artificial intelligence needs you to sit right in front of the microphone.

Is AI an Invasion of Privacy?

Privacy is one of the issues that programmers currently struggle with because they want to serve consumers with voice response that helps people with convenience, but they need to develop a way that does not require constant monitoring and listening which invades peoples’ privacy.

This is also true of the growing number of neural networks which currently have no legal control over them. That budding technology, a sister to artificial intelligence, allows a device to take on the properties of a human brain and interface with others like it. In the latest iterations, neural nets achieved what only science fiction had conceived until the 20-teens — neural networks can now link one human mind to another across miles.

All of these technologies come together to provide some useful applications though. You probably do not mind when your Android or iOS device completes the word you type using AI algorithms. It saves you time. Your Roomba vacuums the house for you, and you appreciate the handy device. The same artificial intelligence can help your business sell more products.

Better Marketing with Artificial Intelligence

Marketing and advertising use many AI devices and software programs to gather data on consumer likes and dislikes by administering online surveys and focus groups through companies like Survey Savvy. These technologies also gather information from sales register data, coupon dispensers, inventory records, and much more. These items help build the data set for the persona you use to accurately represent your company and its customers. Probably the most famous of these, Betty Crocker, receives consistent style updates from the Proctor and Gamble company. It periodically updates her hair, makeup, clothes, etc. to keep her modern and in line with consumers that purchase their baking products.

Machine learning may think for itself, but it does so based upon actual data inputs. It recognizes hashtags on Twitter or Facebook and likes posts that use the ones it is programmed to use. This labeled data can get updated by a human or by machine data acquisition but remains accurate. If it is programmed to like #RealEstate, it likes all posts with #RealEstate that actually are about real estate. That’s where the learning part comes in. A bot would get programmed to like posts with #RealEstate, but using machine learning and AI, your device would look at the post as a whole to ensure its content talked about real estate. Analyzing any link in the tweet to ensure it is about real estate helps machine learning-driven AI avoid clickbait.

Call Bake More Pies

With respect to your marketing, artificial intelligence helps us learn what your consumers want. This helps Bake More Pies know what to include in your advertisements and develop better marketing strategies for your business. We can develop an on-point, accurate plan for your brand or company using AI-driven software programs. Contact us today, so we can help you make use of the latest technologies like artificial intelligence, deep learning, and machine learning to market your products and services.

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