While AI has been used for high-end industry-related solutions, it has some bizarre but true uses

Artificial Intelligence has been credited as a major disruptive force leading us towards digital transformation. From helping in developing high-end robotics to weather predictions, stock market crash, drug discovery, to understanding customer data, better filling system, and so forth, AI is quite instrumental in the technological advancements we see today. Though it is a common thought that AI will rob us of our employment opportunities and jobs, in contrast, it has been observed that AI has helped us by augmenting our capabilities and assisting us in numerous activities, including the trivial ones. While we are all quite aware of how AI is shaping industries generally functions, there are some uncommon applications of AI too. Let us discuss some of them.

1. AI in Brewing:

A London-based company called IntelligentX Brewing Co. introduced the world's first beer brewed with the help of artificial intelligence. Their AI, in the form of a chatbot, takes feedback from customers, enquiring about their flavor preferences, which are often answered with a simple 'yes' or 'no' or with a 1-10 rating system. Then the bot interprets the information and forwards it to human brewers, who tweak the recipe. Microsoft and Carlsberg started a 'Beer Fingerprinting' project in 2017, where machine learning is combined with high tech sensors to recognize subtle nuances and aromas.

2. Fortune Telling:

Alexander Reben, an artist and MIT-trained roboticist, built a system that generates one-line predictions by training a neural network on the messages found in thousands of fortune cookies and thousands of inspirational expressions he scraped off the Internet. While he expected playful and seemingly vaguely perceptive advice known to bring a smile to people's faces after reading fortune cookies, his system produced nearly 75 percent of very negative messages, and the rest were plain weird. Some of the predictions include, "The first man gets the oyster, the second mouse gets" "Success is a powerful excuse," and many more. Reben calls these results as 'artificial philosophy.'

3. AI as Lyricist:

Yes, AI was used in writing lyrics of the Alex Da Kid's 2017 single "Not Easy" by Ambassadors, Elle King, and Wiz Khalifa, which peaked number 4 on iTunes' Hot Tracks list. AI sifted through millions of conversations, newspaper titles, and lectures based on the main theme of the song: heartbreak. Then, after the theme was defined, machine learning algorithms were used to create music found different musical elements, which gave them ideas on how this piece should sound.

4. Chef AI:

San Francisco's Creator uses a combination of AI and robotics for every step of the burger-making process, i.e., grinding beef, frying patties, toasting buns, dispensing condiments, adding tomatoes, onions, and pickles, and even assembling burgers. Meanwhile, MIT students and researchers have built an AI system that generates new pizza recipes. They trained a recurrent neural network on hundreds of artisan recipes and later cooked its creations in a 900-degree wood-fired brick oven. Another UK company Moley Robotics has unveiled its first master chef robot. Even IBM's Chef Watson is helping up in suggesting intriguing recipes.

5. Basketball Instructor:

Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and DeepMotion Inc used deep reinforcement learning to mimic the skills of human basketball players caught on motion capture data to teach an AI model how to dribble like a pro. Then AI teaches a simulated basketball player through trial and error about how to finely manipulate the ball, both while stationary and while running.

6. AI finding Waldo:

Remember that popular book in childhood, where one has to find Waldo in picturesque scenery? Well, Redpepper, a US-based creative marketing agency, has built a robot to find Waldo, known as Wally in the UK. They trained Google's AutoML Vision to identify the elusive illustrated character by feeding it images of the peppermint-striped traveler. Then a robotic arm equipped with a camera takes a photo of the pages of the puzzle book and compares it to the model. After finding a match, the robot slams its plastic hand on Waldo.

7. AI Buzzing Bees:

While the population of bees is rapidly dwindling due to global warming and deforestation, it also poses a threat of crop failure and loss of the remaining green cover on the Earth, since bees are nature pollinator. Now, researchers have developed a robot bee drone that incorporates artificial intelligence, GPS, and a high-resolution camera to pollinate as honeybees do. Furthermore, students at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland created an image recognition agent called ApiZoom. This AI tool scans for mites (which are a threat to bees) and informs beekeepers about mites infestation.

8. AI, as a social worker:

The U-Reportchatbot, developed by UNICEF, was used in Liberian schools to report incidents of abuse and injustice via SMS. U-Report users were asked if their teachers had ever solicited sex in exchange for their school grades. After observing 86% of the poll, respondents answered yes, countless other victims from around the country felt safe enough to reach out for support, and local authorities are now working to address the issue. Other than that, U-Report is used to get insights on health, education, water, sanitation and hygiene, youth unemployment, HIV/AIDS, and disease outbreaks. At present, U-Report is now active in 68 countries, benefiting over 11 million users all over the world.

9. AI ToothBrush:

In 2014, Kolibree claimed to have invented the first AI-powered toothbrush, unveiling its device known as Ara in 2017. Last year, Oral-B launched its US$220 Oral-B Genius X electric toothbrush, which Oral-B says uses AI to help users brush better.  Oral-B claims that this AI-powered oral scrubber so advanced is that it's been trained via thousands of volunteers to assess different brushing styles and detect how it's used in the mouth to give pointers on improving how one brushes his teeth. Meanwhile, Kolibree's toothbrush uses deep learning algorithms to learn one's habits and refine accuracy the more it's used.

10. Raising Awareness:

Charity: Water and Lokai have teamed up to create the Yeshi Messenger chatbot to raise awareness about the drinking water crisis. Here, Yeshi is a fictional girl from Ethiopia who needs to walk 2.5 hours every day to fetch clean water for her family (highlighting a similar issue faced by millions of African girls and women). The Yeshi bot is humanizing the Ethiopian water crisis and encouraging people to take action by inviting users to walk with her and get a glimpse into her daily life. It also encourages people to contribute financially to the cause.

11. AI Perfumer:

IBM Research and German fragrance house Symrise collaborated to create a new method of developing perfumes by analyzing existing fragrance formulas alongside historical sales data to understand which type of people were buying each scent. This algorithm, which was created in IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center and which the company has named Philyra, can now develop new perfumes targeting very specific market segments.