Artificial intelligence suddenly seems like all you hear about, but it didn't just happen. Scientists have been working toward creating working AI models for years. Only recently have they managed to create something that can be useful.

At first glance, it might seem that AI is really only good for language or image processing: You can have AI write a story or create an image. Some creatives have even used it to create complete books. Or, if you've really been following AI developments, you might have seen all the stories about how AI has gone off the rails. 

Despite all the doom and gloom, AI isn't all bad. Quite the opposite is true. You're actually using AI in many ways already, even if you don't realize it. Here are 10 of the best uses for AI in your daily life.

Digital Assistants and Smart Home Devices

Suppose you own an Amazon Alexa device, an Apple product with Siri, a computer that leverages Cortana, or an Android-based device with Google Assistant. In that case, you may not realize it, but you already use AI regularly. Digital assistants are software applications that can learn your voice, recognize your speech pattern, and even monitor your environment to send an alert at the sound of breaking glass or when other triggers take place. And statistics show that more than 40 percent of people use these digital assistants somehow.

Digital assistants use Natural Language Processing, which is the ability to recognize words and phrases that are commonly used and to 'infer' the response you're looking for based on those words and phrases. Moreover, they can even be programmed to complete complicated routines like dimming the lights, changing the temperature, and reading specific information aloud when triggered using the right phrase. 

Streaming Services

Almost 80 percent of people worldwide listen to music through some streaming service. That's a lot of music streaming. And AI is getting in on the action there, too. For example, Spotify has an AI-enhanced streaming service in beta testing that will create playlists for you based on the music you've listened to and explain why it chose the songs on that playlist.

You may have also used AI if you use Netflix or Amazon Prime. Both services have AI-enhanced capabilities that help create recommendations for what you might want to watch. Netflix even tried its hand at creating an anime film using AI. 

Creative Work

If you work (or play) in a creative environment and use software applications like Adobe After Effects or Premiere Pro, you may have used AI there. The company has added AI capabilities to help creators during the editing process, specifically for video creators.

But digital creators aren't the only ones who can benefit from AI. Programs like Magic Canvas for the Glowforge laser cutter have incorporated AI to help creators move an idea from conception to creation. Even woodworkers are using AI to design woodworking projects in ways they may not have previously been able to. 

Fitness Plans

Fitness is another area that has gotten lots of attention over the past few years as more and more people realize the need for a healthier lifestyle. As a result, some people have turned to AI to create fitness plans tailored to their specific needs, styles, and preferred focus.

Apps like FitnessAI are popping up online to help novice users dig even deeper into AI capabilities for a truly customized workout. And that doesn't even consider all of the already available apps that use AI to nudge people toward healthier lifestyle choices. Nor does it include the software that's built into wearable devices. 

Education 

Researchers are working on ways to integrate AI into education at all levels. For example, researchers from Clemson University are developing AI that can customize lesson plans based on a student's needs, while researchers at Stanford have created a prototype for an AI-enhanced biology textbook that helps students find the answers they need and engages with those students to deepen their understanding of the subject.

Even beyond basic instruction, AI can give students a boost in language skills. Programs like Grammarly learn from a person's writing style or targets that person has outlined for a document and makes suggestions to improve their writing. Grammarly can even help teachers by sniffing out plagiarism.  

Work Projects

Recently, a major area of focus has been on creating AI that can help people do common tasks faster. What better place to apply that kind of AI than in the necessary communications people must create and send daily at their jobs? For example, if you've ever used Gmail and noticed that it offers suggestions while writing an email-that's AI.

Microsoft is also getting into the game with Copilot, an AI assistant designed to help you create documents, presentations, and reports. It can even create email responses, monitor calendars to sync up meeting times, and create PivotTables in Excel. 

Creating Accessibility

Probably one of the greatest advantages of AI is its ability to help people with disabilities. For example, a feature of MidJourney, an image-generating AI, will automatically write alt text for images. Alt text describes the image screen readers use to help people with disabilities deciphers the images on a page.

Another advancement that AI can facilitate is the diagnosis of disabilities. There was a time when a person might make it into adulthood before they were diagnosed with an attention deficit disorder, dyslexia, or even Asperger's syndrome. AI can now examine patterns of behavior, test results, and other information to diagnose these and other conditions. What's more, once the diagnosis is made, AI can help create a plan of care to help the individual learn to function more effectively with the disorder or overcome it completely. 

Combating Climate Change

Climate change is at the forefront of nearly everyone's mind. Changes in weather patterns and how animals behave, differences in our atmosphere, and even increases in diseases can be attributed to climate change. And AI can help combat those issues.

For example, AI is used to help monitor climate change and create recommendations for reducing emissions. It also has the ability to unearth facts and data that were previously overlooked, which helps researchers to look more creatively at the problems our planet is facing, which in turn helps those scientists to find better solutions to the problems we face. AI could even help us save the bees that are so vital to our ecosystem. 

Winning the War on Drugs

An unexpected benefit of having AI that can crunch billions of bits of data is that it can make connections faster than humans will ever be able to. Think about drug molecules that could be used to create new, more dangerous designer drugs. AI can connect the dots between those combinations, which scientists and law enforcement agencies can then use to prevent the creation of those drugs.

Taking that whole idea up a notch, AI can also use that information to create safer, more effective drugs to treat diseases that have never been treatable before. 

And Even Better Healthcare

If AI can be used to create better drugs, it can also improve our healthcare to levels that we've only dreamed about. For example, AI can create connections in a patient record that might point to early symptoms of a disease. Or it could be used to identify disease markers in areas difficult to differentiate.

However AI is used in healthcare, its ability to use vast amounts of data to make connections that have never been made before opens a world of possibilities for the cures and preventative measures that may be coming in the near future.

How Artificial Intelligence Can Help the World

Taken together, it's easy to see the possibilities for artificial intelligence to positively impact our world. And we haven't even gotten to chatbots, banking and finance, social media, or facial recognition.

Are there still many nuances that need to be considered, addressed, and maybe even legislated? Absolutely. But we've only scratched the surface of the technology, and there are so many possibilities. It's exciting to see what might come next.

• What is "AGI" in artificial intelligence?

  AGI stands for "artificial general intelligence." It's a theoretical version of AI that can do anything a human brain can do with minimal input or guidance. Another term for it is "strong AI," which differs from currently available algorithms (known as "weak AI").

• What are examples of artificial intelligence?

  One commonplace example of an AI is the digital assistant on your smartphone or computer (e.g., Siri, Alexa, Cortana, and Bixby). Other AI systems you may see around are social-media algorithms and text generators like ChatGPT.