7 Unusual Use Cases for AI

Whenever we discuss the key benefits of artificial intelligence (AI), we think of its application in connected cars, FinTech, and healthcare. While we first encountered smart algorithms in the form of Amazon product recommendations and personal assistants like Siri, this technology has evolved to become so much more.

Some use cases in healthcare and software development were groundbreaking (to say the least). However, every now and then, we come across some surprising applications for new technologies.

Let’s take a look at seven unusual real-world use cases for AI.

1. Companion for the Elderly

ELLI.Q is a fantastic AI-powered creation that keeps the elderly engaged in conversation and occupied during the day. This friendly and intelligent presence in their life can tell jokes, provide tips and advice, or just keep older people company.

This intelligent social companion keeps older adults active, connected, and engaged. As such, ELLI.Q is also packed with features like games, access to social media, and video chat. Together, this device can significantly improve the quality of life for the elderly, especially during this remarkable stage in their life’s journey.

2. Artificial Olfactory Sensation

Symrise, a German Fragrance House, partnered with IBM a few years ago to introduce the perfume industry to what they call artificial olfaction. This approach helps Symrise maintain a competitive advantage and its place at the forefront of product innovation.

In a highly competitive industry like the fragrance business, innovation (and sometimes novelty) is what differentiates one brand from another. In this scenario, they worked with AI to analyze different fragrance chemical formulas to develop a whole new way of preparing new fragrances.

They also leveraged AI to learn from historical data about customer choices and preferences. Based on this information, they then blended different aromatic components to create a unique fragrance.

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3. Fighting Crime

While it might seem a little odd at first, using AI to solve crimes makes perfect sense! For example, we have already seen it in movies and TV shows like CSI, where detectives effortlessly enhance blurry images to identify the culprit. So, why not do it in the real world?

While that kind of thing isn’t exactly possible just yet, AI experiments continue in the world of criminal justice. Today, law enforcement can use facial recognition tools to identify people. While these are great at identifying Caucasians, they often fail when it comes to people of color (so, it’s better to engage our planet full of Clickworkers to build a more representative database for smart algorithms to learn!).

Although misidentifications and privacy concerns kicked facial recognition tools out of law enforcement, AI still plays a vital role in evaluating enormous datasets quickly. This is especially critical in fighting financial fraud.

4. Robot Burger Chef

An AI-powered robot called Flippy is the star of a hamburger restaurant called CaliBurger. Built by Miso Robotics, Flippy aims to mitigate risk (in a busy kitchen) and accelerate grilling time in a fast-food restaurant.

You can also train this smart robot (that’s not required to wear a hairnet) to cut vegetables, fry chicken, and much more. Going forward, with the ongoing great resignation, we will probably see a lot more robots in fast food restaurant kitchens.

5. Songwriting and Rapping

Using computers to make music is nothing new, but computers making music on their own is something else altogether. Imagine finding out that AI wrote the song you’ve been listening to on repeat all week? Seems impossible? It shouldn’t because it has already happened (well, kind of anyway).

If you remember, Alex Da Kid’s single “Not Easy’’ was a chart-topper a few years ago. This song was written in collaboration with IBM’s Watson. In this case, Watson scanned and analyzed hits from the previous five years, news media, social media, and other related material. Then it helped form the general structure of the song based on what people were responding to at the time.

If that didn’t sound a little far out, we also have an AI rapper called DeepBeat. Deep Beat uses machine learning (ML) to understand and reuse existing lyrics to create new rap songs. However, as this project is still in its infancy, don’t expect any freestyle rap battles with the likes of Eminem any time soon.

But AI’s most unusual use case is probably creating new music for dead musicians. For example, the Lost Tapes of the 27 Club features new songs written and performed mainly by machines. These songs all follow the songwriting styles of several musicians who passed away at the age of 27. These include stars of yesteryear like:

• Amy Winehouse 
• Jimi Hendrix
• Jim Morrison

Each song on the album is the result of unleashing an AI program to analyze up to 30 songs from each artist. Smart algorithms looked for styles and patterns in melodies, chord changes, guitar riffs, and so on to create a new composition.

6. Pet Companions

Our pets’ time flies by much faster, and as such, TTcare, an AI homecare app for pets, hopes to enhance their lives and keep track of their health. This approach will potentially ensure that our furry friends are cared for quickly and live a long healthy life.

Speaking of pets, there are also robot pets designed to read emotions, recognize people, obey commands, and hang out with your animals. While these companies might want to replace your dog or cat, these AI-powered beasts might also be great companions for your lonely pet at home.

7. News Anchor

The wild days of the Anchorman are long gone, and today, we have the world’s first AI-powered news anchor. Developed by China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency, this AI-driven digitally modeled anchor studies previous broadcasts and mimics one of their human presenters, Zhang Zhao.

However, the jury is out on this one as some claim that it isn’t really AI as the AI anchor is just reading a script. But that’s precisely what human presenters do during a live broadcast—they just read what’s on a teleprompter.

AI in the newsroom suggests that we might also start seeing AI actors pretty soon. We have already fused animation into films, so why not AI? After all, it’ll help major film studios make a ton of money with their own group of AI actors.

Andrew Zola