Like it or loathe it AI is here to stay. The use of Artificial Intelligence is a part and parcel of all aspects of life from creating amusing GIFs on your smartphone to powering clinical diagnostics in healthcare settings.
As a proud human writer, trained and experienced I have avoided using AI in my writing but I know people who absolutely love applications like chatGBT. As long as people don't forget that it is artificial intelligence and use it to enhance or timesaver rather than do the job entirely, each to their own I say.
I swore I would never use it but am completely enamoured by my mobile phone which now allows me to easily edit photos, removing clutter, photo bombers and other unwanted inclusions to create cleaner images. Of course AI has been in smart phones for years - that facial recognition software? AI. Got one of those taxi booking apps like Uber? AI analyses date to allocate drivers and inform you how long it will take for them to reach you based on historical and current traffic data.
Of course this is a silly side quest for technology which can save lives, improve business efficiency, boost quality in industrial vision systems and enhance leisure time to name just a few uses, but nevertheless it's something I never dreamed of back in the days when you had to wait for your film to be developed at the chemist only to find out your finger was covering the corner of your perfect pic.
My son studying marketing at university says AI is an integral part of his course now and while he's been job hunting he has noticed that running AI campaigns is very much part of the job description. I see that social media platforms now require disclosure of AI enhanced or created content which I am pleased about. I have never yet used AI in my work but I am sure the time will come...
I already have an AI powered sat nav, my AI pal in my phone summarises my emails for me and my house is controlled by Alexa AND Google Home. "They" might be listening but I'm sure they will soon get bored of my daily life. It's worth the risk to me to have geo-controlled heating which saves me a fortune, security cameras and lots and lots of pretty voice controlled lights inside and out.
Teachers are using AI to make the tedious job of report writing more efficient, physicians use AI to diagnose and prescribe to patients and in business, AI can play a crucial role in optimising business processes. We are all used to chatbots now which save hours of hanging on the phone while behind the scenes our artificial friends are automating dull tasks like data entry and lead qualification freeing up human time for sales, customer service and more, ultimately leading to increased efficiency , productivity and customer satisfaction.
The doors to an AI enhanced world are already open so the best plan, even for slightly reluctant people like me it to learn how to safely and efficiently use it to enhance, not control our lives.