Artificial Intelligence Development

from boosting vaccine development to automating detection of potential fraud.

DuoLingo, a popular language-learning app, uses AI in a variety of ways, including in a machine-learning implementation called Birdbrain. Based on how a user is doing, Birdbrain adjusts the difficulty within a lesson. If a user keeps getting things wrong, the app will lower the difficulty. If the user is getting every answer right, the app will ask a harder question. After a user has completed five to six lessons, the app can start producing custom AI-generated lessons, creating a personalized experience. As the tech improves, personalization will improve, too.

New technologies can speed up processes and decisions for organizations like NASA. In 2021, Pathways intern Evana Gizzi developed Research in Artificial Intelligence for Spacecraft Resilience (RAISR). Using RAISR, AI could quickly diagnose faults in spacecraft and spaceflight systems. It works using a combination of classical AI techniques and machine learning to find connections that humans can’t. Speeding up the fault diagnosis process would lead to faster repair and improve a mission’s efficiency.

TikTok, which is the most downloaded app in the world, uses machine learning. When a user opens the app for the first time, they’re greeted by a handful of popular videos. Based on what the user engages with, the algorithm identifies similar videos using details like hashtags, sounds, language, and captions. Once TikTok has enough data, it maps a user’s preferences into “clusters” of users and videos. With machine learning, the algorithm presents new videos based on these clusters. Unfortunately, this raises issues regarding extremism and radicalization, which is another reason why AI’s role in social media is important.