Google’s Autodraw and How AI Is Set to Change the World

Apr 28, 2019

Adopting new software is always accompanied with difficulties: implementation cost and time, staff training, maintenance costs, etc. Thus, it’s crucial to invest enough time on choosing the right software for your business. First identify the goals you want to achieve with new software. It can be increasing profitability, sales and utilization, reducing costs and number of software you currently use, or improving fleet management, staff productivity or customer experience. Then, there are several factors you should consider.

Autodraw and AI

Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to permeate our lives, as Google’s latest AI-based experiment, Autodraw, is released to the public. Using this free web tool, you start doodling just like you would in Microsoft Paint. Autodraw then makes guesses based on your doodles, giving you the chance to complete your drawing with just one click. In other words, it’s like autocomplete for your drawings. The tool also allows you to color your creations and add text. The technology behind Autodraw is based on the one used in Quick, Draw!—a game released by Google in 2016. It uses neural networks and object recognition to try to guess what you are trying to draw and offers you to replace your doodle with artist renditions of the same object. In fact, artists are encouraged to contribute drawings of their own to the Autodraw library in order to continue perfecting and expanding the tool.

AI and Software Development

Machine learning in AI has had many implications for our lives, and “doodle autocomplete” is only the tip of the iceberg. You know it’s going to be big, when it is prioritized by giants like Google, Amazon, and Facebook. If AI is now used to help you perfect your drawings, what are the chances your company software should be incorporating AI elements too? (If it isn’t, maybe it’s time to upgrade your software.)

In fact, machine learning is the next big thing in software development, and engineers everywhere are embracing the idea. Gone are the days when developers would spend copious amounts of time writing features. With AI, software is now created to use data to become more intelligent on its own. The data that the software receives shapes its functioning and its ability to interact. In other words, it is the data that determines how a particular software will evolve.

A common fear is now arising as a result of these developments: that extensive implementation of AI in software is poised to cost people their jobs. Bill Gates himself has called for a strike on these innovations by proposing taxes on such technology to make up for potential losses. Advocates, however, assure us that the demand for coders will not be curtailed by AI in software – simply, there will be a new need for coders with different skills. Moreover, there are currently plenty of unfilled developer positions in the United States. According to Alec Whitters, CEO of Higher Learning Technologies, “There’s just not enough [technical talent] out there for the demand that’s seen in this country.”

Software and Beyond

Even aside from software development, the ramifications of AI and Machine Learning are limitless when it comes to making an impact on our day-to-day activities. It has already infiltrated our lives with Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, Netflix, Google Translate and Voice Search, automatic credit card fraud detection, email spam filters, etc. And IoT (the Internet of Things) is about to propel this even further. With an estimated 50 billion devices to be connected by 2020, it is a treasure trove of data ready to be fed into smart software, which will open up a whole new world of possibilities.

The staggering amounts of data created by connected devices will provide invaluable insight into, well, almost everything. AI is what will help make heads and tails of all this data and boil it down to what’s actually important. This is why the relationship between AI and IoT is symbiotic – one needs the other in order to make progress. And progress they will, impacting the entire specter of our existence with exciting new concepts. AI enables intriguing new projects in preventive medicine, robotics, farming, cars, etc. At this pace, it will come as no surprise if within a couple of years we start seeing things and concepts from sci-fi come to life.

Bottom Line

AI is already becoming ubiquitous. It is in the way we make queries in search engines, in the way brands understand whether you are reading or blocking their emails, and even in the way we draw stick figures online. It is impacting and will continue to impact the devices we use, the way we do business, and the way we interact with each other.

Of course, when it comes to software development, AI is one of the buzzwords to watch out for. It will help developers build better software faster, by using algorithms to configure the software to self-learn. In other words, the artificially intelligent software of tomorrow will be taught the same way babies are taught to read.

Organizations from all industries are catching on to the idea that great software and AI are key to remaining competitive. This is why many now are opting to use it to not only unlock value from the volumes of data they deal with, but also their true potential.