No doubt you’ve seen dozens of headlines (or more) about generative AI and how tools like ChatGPT are going to transform our jobs. But what about everyday life? Because the fact that AI can now generate content – including text, images, video, and the like – may change your daily life in some surprising ways.
Here are five not-so-obvious ways generative AI may impact the world around you.
Welcome To The World of AI-Enhanced Entertainment
Generative AI has the potential to enhance human creativity across the whole spectrum of arts, sports, and entertainment. Think books written with the help of generative AI, music created or curated just for you based on your personal preferences, and podcasts automatically translated into your native language. Generative AI is also being used in films to generate backdrops, characters, and special effects – thereby opening up opportunities for smaller studios to achieve the sort of high-quality effects that were previously available to the big players only.
And as for your favorite sporting events, generative AI can be used to automatically generate or translate commentary, produce realistic virtual simulations, and create visual augmentations – even in real-time. In one example, Fox Sports is using generative AI to generate content from its massive archive of game footage. Google’s system can rapidly search through footage from nearly two million videos and produce new video content “in near real-time” for sharing on TV and social media. In other words, watching the game in the future could be a much more immersive and fun experience.
Your Kids May Have A Sneaky New Way Of Doing Their Homework
If you’re a Snapchat user, you may have noticed that every user suddenly gained a new friend at the top of their friend list in 2023 – an AI chatbot built on ChatGPT. Snapchat users could give their new AI friend a name and profile picture and then start chatting with it 24 hours a day.
Now, you may not be a Snapchat user, but I bet your kids are (or will be). And this means they can ask Snapchat’s AI bot, well, pretty much anything. They can have deep and meaningful conversations with it. They can ask silly questions. And, that’s right, they can ask it to do their homework for them. Think about it. Why spend time researching a topic in books or online when they can simply ask their AI pal to answer a question or write a piece of text for them? As parents, it’s up to us to teach our children how to use AI tools responsibly and ethically – to get the best out of them without relying on them. This includes learning to think critically and question whether the content they’re presented with could be incorrect or biased. (Indeed, this is an issue that Snap, the company behind Snapchat, itself acknowledges.)
Will We Say Bye-Bye To Googling?
Considering many people will increasingly access information via tools like ChatGPT, it’s not crazy to think that internet searching (as we know it today) could die out. Let’s face it: the average internet search experience can be pretty clunky. You may get dozens, hundreds or even millions of search results. You have to sift through the top results, accept or decline all those cookies on multiple websites, and often scroll past paragraphs of SEO content to get at the nugget of information you want. Compare this to asking ChatGPT for information – you simply type or speak a question and get an immediate response. It’s a much cleaner, less frustrating experience. (Of course, whether the information you receive is correct is another matter. But the same can be said of the internet.)
Internet search companies are understandably keen to integrate generative AI into search capabilities. Microsoft Bing was the first to integrate ChatGPT. But Google is also experimenting with a new search experience called SGE (Search Generative Experience), designed to help users better make sense of information online. For example, users will be able to see definitions by hovering over certain words or access a list of key points from lengthy web pages.
Whether internet searching in its current form dies out or not, you can be certain generative AI is going to change how we search for information.
Planning Your Meals With The Help Of AI
Ever got home from a long day and thought, “I have no idea what to make for dinner?” Of course, you have; we all have. But now, rather than reaching for your phone and ordering a takeaway, you can reach for your phone and ask generative AI for help. Language models like ChatGPT can suggest meal ideas and even create full recipes for you based on the ingredients you have to hand and your dietary requirements. Want a meal that uses up salmon, coconut milk and the rapidly wilting spring onions in your fridge? No problem. Want it to be gluten-free and not include garlic? That’s fine, too. You can even ask generative AI to plan your whole week of dinners.
Several recipe-specific generative AI tools already exist to boost your cooking efforts. Examples include ChefGPT, FoodAI, Supercook and Plant Jammer (for the vegans among you). If only AI could do the actual cooking and load the dishwasher…
Dating And Sex In The Generative AI Era
Could generative AI transform dating and sex? That’s the idea behind DreamGF, a platform that uses generative AI to create virtual girlfriends. That’s right, users can create their dream woman, including physical traits such as hair length, ethnicity, age, and breast size. As for her personality, users can select from a (notably smaller) number of descriptors such as “nympho,” “dominatrix,” or “nurse.” Users can chat with their “girlfriend” via text and ask her to send nude pics. A DreamBF version is in the works for those who want to create their dream AI boyfriend.
Is it a bit creepy? Well, yes. The idea of “dating” or even just sexting an AI is certainly riddled with complications – not least the danger of setting unattainable expectations of what it’s like to have a real relationship with a real human being. Will it change dating for the majority of people? Probably not. But are there plenty of people out there who would love to create their ideal, uncomplicated, perfectly compliant partner? Depressingly, yes.
As generative AI continues to evolve, its influence on our daily lives will extend far beyond what we can currently imagine, promising a future where technology reshapes everything from our entertainment and education to how we search for information, plan meals, and even navigate the complexities of dating and relationships. Embracing these changes responsibly and ethically will be essential as we navigate this exciting new era of AI-enhanced living.
