From chatbots and digital assistants to facial recognition or biometric scanners, our daily interactions with artificial intelligence have surged over the past few years, most of them without us even realizing it. This post explores some of the ways that Al has infiltrated our day-to-day lives and how consumers generally feel about it.

Unlocking your phone

It will be the first thing many do as soon as they wake up, but some may be surprised to know that the simple act of unlocking a smartphone by looking at it relies on Al. Apple's True Depth camera, for example, projects 30,000 invisible dots on to a user's face to create a so-called depth map', and compares that to the saved data to allow access. It can even automatically adapt to changes in appearance, such as facial hair or make-up.

The average user unlocks the phone 79 times a day

Spell check

Doing something as simple as composing an email can call in the use of Al. Grammarly is an Al-powered writing assistant that suggests improvements to grammar or spot errors in users' writing. The company says its Al also listens to feedback from humans - for example if several users choose to ignore a certain suggestion, adjustments are made to the algorithms to make them more accurate.

30 million people use Grammarly to improve their writing

Speaking to smart assistants

Virtual assistants such as Alexa and Siri rely on voice recognition software and natural language processing. They break down questions or phrases into individual sounds, then run those sounds through a database, using sophisticated algorithms to find the right answer. As more people use the assistants, the database of sounds expands and the algorithm learns as it goes.

4.2 billion digital voice assistants in use worldwide

Netflix recommendations

Netflix says its recommendation system strives to help you find a show or movie to enjoy with minimal effort It assesses a variety of factors, such as your viewing history, how you rate titles, what others with similar tastes have watched, which actors or genres you like to watch and things like the time of the day you use the service. These all feed into Netflix's algorithm, which is improved every time you watch something new.

195 million paid subscribers

Chatbots

Designed to simulate human conversation, chatbots operate via chat interfaces on customer service portals, interpreting written words inputted by customers to provide a pre-set answer. Their ability to respond to complex questions is limited, but they have come a long way over recent years.

93% increase in chatbot usage by B2B customers from 2019 to 2020

Blocking unwanted emails

Sophisticated spam filters such as those used by Gmail rely on deep learning, where the algorithms learn from users clicking 'report spam' and 'not spam', and adapt accordingly. It tailors inboxes to users' habits, for example learning to filter out emails that individuals tend to quickly delete or ignore. Gmail also uses a so-called artificial neural network, which recognizes and filters out certain kinds of messages, such as sneaky phishing attempts.

99.9% of spam, pishing and malware is blocked on Gmail