March 26, 2021

Artificial intelligence, real problem solving: How AI is improving different industries

Artificial intelligence is often used to fix problems in the real world

Artificial intelligence is often used to fix problems in the real world. Some areas where AI is helping include:
Farming
Growing food crops such as wheat and corn is difficult because these crops are extremely fragile. The tiniest change in a growing environment can wipe out a year’s worth of food. To help protect crops, an AI can quickly scan photos of entire farms and detect discoloration. The AI can determine if the strange color results from a disease, pests, improper watering or weather conditions. It can then make recommendations on how to save the crops.

Manufacturing
It’s almost impossible for humans to predict when a mechanical device will fall apart or get too old to function. AIs can monitor machines – from air conditioners to cars – to sense tiny changes that occur while the machine is operating. Measuring thousands of movements per second, the AI can predict breakdowns and suggest repairs. This helps prevent problems and allows people to quickly fix problems when they occur.

Safety
Whenever disaster strikes, emergency personnel have to figure out how to quickly rescue people and save property. Having an AI compare a current disaster with previous ones can help find out what worked best in the past. AIs can study the patterns of thousands of earlier disasters to determine where to put firefighting equipment, predict where flooding might be the worst or decide the fastest way to evacuate residents.

Medicine
No doctor on Earth can keep up with all the new information that might help their patients. The world’s medical knowledge doubles every 73 days. Each year, there are more than 80,000 medical papers published – and that’s just about cancer. Using AI, doctors and hospitals can scan those papers and find information that helps make a diagnosis or prescribes new treatments. An AI can also act as an assistant that has instant access to how similar patient cases have been handled in the past.