Generative artificial intelligence has exploded since ChatGPT hit the mainstream late last year. Five For Friday has covered the jobs AI could replace and even the ways it could be sued. But technology advancement has already graduated past theoretical applications. Here are the real-world businesses already using generative AI in this week’s Five For Friday.
#5: Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes’ current voice assistant MBUX operates like Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri. The inclusion of ChatGPT in 900,000 vehicles promises a more intuitive and natural conversation with your car.
The company says you can ask more complex questions. The voice assistant can give you information about your destination or even make restaurant suggestions for when you get there; anything to keep drivers from looking down at their cell phones while on the road.
#4: Night Shift Brewing
Craft brewers spend countless hours coming up with interesting concoctions with equally quirky names. But the team at Night Shift Brewing just outside of Boston decided to outsource the process to readily-available AI. Apparently it’s becoming a trend in the industry.
The team used ChatGPT to come up with the name and formulate the recipe for a New England Hazy IPA. They also used Midjourney to design the label for AI-P-A. Humans were involved in the creation to make sure the robot brewers didn’t get too out of control. The brew has a rating above 3.5 on Untappd — not too bad considering how particular craft beer drinkers can be.
#3: Wendy’s
Wendy’s says its drive-thru AI is so good, you might not be able to tell whether it’s a human or chatbot. The chain is testing out the chatbot, developed with Google, starting with one Columbus, Ohio-area restaurant this June.
The company took extra care to make sure it is as accurate as possible and can understand their customers’ complex orders. Wendy’s says it knows that if someone says, “JBC,” they mean a Junior Bacon Cheeseburger, and that if someone asks for a milkshake, they’re looking for a Frosty. It will even upsell a customer before handing the order off to its human coworkers.
#2: Duolingo
Duolingo gamified learning a new language and adding GPT-4 to the mix is making it that much more robust.
Duolingo Max allows users to practice real-world conversations with the bot to boost their skills. You can practice making plans with friends or ordering a beverage at a cafe. The “Explain My Answer” feature helps you get to the bottom of why you may have gotten an answer wrong. For now, the feature is only available for those learning French or Spanish and IOS users. Again, the real people at Duolingo are behind the scenes making sure the bot is correct and isn’t too rude.
#1: Live 95.5 FM
Portland Oregon’s Live 95.5 is breaking ground with the technology in the form of an AI DJ.
The station used RadioGPT to create a robot version of its very real radio personality Ashley Elzinga. AI Ashley sounds just like the real deal and can even talk with listeners. The station says the real Ashley’s job is safe and her salary will stay the same. If this sounds familiar, it’s because The Simpsons did it all the way back in 1994.