Most people have a love-hate relationship with the autocorrect feature on phones or computers. What’s happening when you enter a misspelled word? And how does the machine know to suggest a better spelling?
Simply put, the software analyzes what you’ve typed so far and predicts a likely correction. Your phone or computer (or its online service) has more than just a dictionary of correct spellings. It has a huge library of phrases that humans use in certain contexts on many subjects. So, when you enter a word that’s not in its dictionary, it begins analyzing and predicting and suggests the word you need. Predictions aren’t always accurate. But if they’re correct often enough, they’re useful and can save you time.
Here are more ways that AI uses data to make predictions.
- Human language
Online chatbots use natural language processing (NLP) to analyze poorly typed or spoken questions, then predict which answers to give on topics ranging from shipping or business hours to merchandise and sizes.
- Vision recognition
AI helps doctors identify serious diseases based on unusual symptoms and early-warning signs, and it reads speed limit and stop signs as it guides cars through traffic.
- Fraud detection
AI analyzes patterns created when thousands of bank customers make credit card purchases, then predicts which charges might be the result of identity theft.
Today’s AI has gone beyond creating driving directions, vacuuming floors, or recommending new fashions. Now it really can mimic the capabilities of the human mind. AI can learn from examples and experience, recognize objects, understand and respond to language, and solve problems. Even more exciting are its future possibilities. Read on to see how AI might evolve over the next half-century.