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AI is advancing at breakneck speeds, and many are viewing this as a potential apocalypse. Now, while it’s true that AI technology is being used in creepy ways, this shouldn’t overshadow its present and future benefits. So here are seven ways AI can help usher in the good times.
1AI-Powered Personal Digital Assistants
We are practically counting the days until we have a fully realized personal digital assistant. Soon, we will be able to talk or text with AI on ourphones or laptops, to help us better organize our day, get work done more quickly, or simply fetch information about a document we saved two weeks ago. Additionally,AI-embedded smart glassescan literally add a whole new dimension to our daily interactions.
For a glimpse of how an AI-powered personal digital assistant might work, you may look at theGPT-4odemo from OpenAI:
There is no denying that this is going to be super useful and make us more productive. What’s more, withbetter, more efficient modelsand advancements inAI hardware, we can potentially run these models entirely locally (on-device) without having to send data to the cloud, making it as secure as possible.
2Robot Pets for Allergic People
We are seeing a lot of advancements in therobotics spacethanks toMultimodal AI—AI that can use multiple input sources like text, images, audio, etc. The robot captures input from its mics, cameras, and other sensors, which its AI brain then processes and provides instructions on how to interact with the environment.
To get a glimpse of what’s possible with current technology, take a look at Loona—powered by GPT-4o:
If Loona is too small for your liking, you can take a look at the Boston Dynamics Robot Dog—Sparkles:
As you’re able to see in this demo, the robots can also be dressed or clothed, to look like dogs, or cats, or whatever you want—I want an alligator!
Jokes aside, ideally, we want the AI model to run entirely locally on the robot for maximum security. Once that’s achieved, I think small-sized quadrupedal robots are going to become really popular. We all know the benefits ofowning a pet, and a full-metal beagle can be just what the doctor ordered for people who suffer from allergies—myself included.
Now, I see some of you with your reservations about whether something made of metal can simulate the experience of owning a pet. I see you because I was you—until I saw this:
3More Efficient Smart Homes
Smart homes alreadyutilize a form of AI. However, in the near future, once they are infused with powerful LLM-backed AI models and have contextual awareness, they will become incredibly useful.
The most practical benefit will be improved energy management, especially if you havesolar panels or solar roofs. With access to weather reports and local electricity rates, AI can seamlessly control and automate the optimal times to store solar energy in batteries or share it with the grid.
Beyond this, you can expect numerous quality-of-life enhancements. Acentralized, locally-run AI-powered smart home hub, with access to data points such as humidity, AQI, temperature, and historical trends, can provide valuable insights.
For example, with historical data, it can tell you objectively if your rooms aren’t heated as well as before and if your HVAC needs servicing. Similarly, it can warn you about a potential damp or leak issue if the air is more humid than expected.
As a result, you get a smart home that doesn’t just react, but anticipates your needs, and provides actionable insights for a better quality of life.
4Personalized Entertainment—Make Your Own Music & Movies
AI is already personalizing our multimedia experience as a recommendation engine. Spotify usesAI to recommend songsyou might like, Netflix usesAI to recommend moviesyou might like and Steam usesAI to recommend gamesyou might like. However, the next step of personalization puts the creative power in your hands.
Imagine writing some lyrics and turning that into a song. Or better yet, just feel a vibe, write what you feel, and haveAI make the entire songfor you. This is already possible thanks to tools likeSunoandUdio. Here’s a song I cooked up using Udio:
Then you have projects likeSoraand other text-to-video AI that can generate short clips. You could potentially stitch these together to make your own movie or short film.
And let’s not forget aboutShowrunnerfrom Fable Studio—a simulation of a world populated with interactive AI characters.
You can passively watch these AI characters live their lives as if it were a TV show. Or you can control what happens to their lives and steer the story’s direction. Gets your imagination running, doesn’t it?
5Faster Video Game Production
As we are expecting higher-fidelity video games, the time it takes to make them is getting longer and longer.Red Dead Redemption 2took around 8 years to finish. TheGrand Theft Autio 5development cycle was 5 years—with the sequel apparently in the works for over a decade. I remember playingSpider-Mandor PS4 back in 2018 and then having to wait 5 years until I could play the sequel, which honestly felt sort of rushed and unfinished.
However, as AI gets better, it can potentially help shorten this development cycle. The key area AI can help with is prototyping the games. With AI-generated character models and level designs, developers can quickly spin up different ideas, test them, and decide on whether to proceed with them or not.
In fact, if you playRoblox, you might already be aware of AI integrations that allow you to make video games with basic text prompts:
Apart from this, AI can also literally play these games and find bugs to speed up the debugging process. Not to mention using AI to build more lively NPCs with contextually relevant dialogue.
6Personalized Learning
There was a lot of worry that calculators in classrooms would make kids dumber in mathematics, but there’sno scientific evidence to back this up. Similarly, there’s also a lot of concern surrounding the role of AI in education, but responsible adoption of AI can actually increase engagement with study materials.
Khan Academy, a leading educational platform, is already incorporating AI tools into its extensive curriculum to make learning fun and interactive for students.
Even if you don’t use Khan Academy, you can leverage AI tools likePerplexityorChatGPTto enhance your learning experience. AI can simplify complex concepts, breaking them down into more understandable terms. For example, you can use this effective prompt:
A well-developed AI educational chatbot can also identify your strengths and areas of struggle. It can then use this contextual awareness to teach new concepts by relating them to familiar ones you already know. This creates a holistic, multidisciplinary learning experience, fostering deeper understanding and retention of knowledge.
7Better Climate Models and Weather Prediction
This is already happening. Researchers around the world are using AI to create climate models that are becoming extremely accurate atpredicting weather patterns. You also have projects like Earth-2 by NVIDIA, which creates planet-level simulation to visualize weather data in real-time.
According to reports, current AI-poweredclimate models perform better than conventional models. With time and advancements in AI, we can only expect these models to get faster and more accurate.
The implications don’t end at a 100% accurate daily rain forecast—although that’d be great! A powerful climate model can potentially predict the weather at least months or years in advance.
This is not just useful, but necessary. With extreme weather events becomingmore common and more severe, we need to stay on top of the next tsunami or hurricane. Also, as the focus shifts towards renewable energy—particularly solar and wind—which are weather-dependent, we need to have a good idea of weather conditions for efficient energy management.
At the end of the day, AI is a tool. Whether it’s bad or not depends on how we use it. I personally believe that with informed regulatory policies, increased public awareness, and responsible development and deployment of AI systems, we can reduce bad actors and use this technology to move towards a brighter future.
