AI has proven to have a considerable impact on some major industries. While autonomous cars and virtual assistants are slowly becoming a reality, the creative industry has been experimenting with AI for several years already. Does it have meaningful implications and if so, what will it bring in the future? It's universally agreed that the first computer-assisted music score dates back to 1957 when composers Lejaren Hiller and Leonard Isaacson unveiled Illiac Suite for string quartet. Utilizing the interconnection between mathematics and music, Hiller was able to program the computer to come up with a stunning four-piece musical score. One of the most notable AI-assisted music projects happened two years ago.

Much to the chagrin of summer party planners, weather is a notoriously chaotic system. Small changes in precipitation, temperature, humidity, wind speed or direction, etc. can balloon into an entirely new set of conditions within a few days. That's why weather forecasts become unreliable more than about seven days into the future--and why picnics need backup plans. But what if we could understand a chaotic system well enough to predict how it would behave far into the future? In January this year, scientists did just that.

Machine learning is helping businesses to move towards a more proactive, as opposed to reactive, approach to cybersecurity, meaning that they will no longer be one step behind attackers and reducing the risk of a data breach. This is particularly important due to the recent implementation of the GDPR. In order to keep up with cyber threats, as much data as possible is collected in order to gain insights into their causes. However, organisations often find it difficult to keep up with the analysis of such large volumes of data. Machine learning automates this analysis so that we can get more out of the data that is collected and give organisations an advantage over attackers.

Machine learning algorithms are already being used in a wide variety of applications – from smartphones to deep space. Indeed, NASA recently discovered a planet orbiting a star (much like our own sun) over 2,500 light years away by using Google's machine learning technology. The rapid rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) and big data applications are only serving to accelerate this new era of automation. While these are exciting times, it's important not to get carried away with all of the hype. AI is not going to result in mass job losses or, as some tech luminaries believe, kill us all.

If you've been following the news recently, you've probably heard a few of the breaking stories about robots beating humans in fairly complex tasks. It started with game show contestants, evolved into outperforming human instinct, and now computers are even outperforming fighter pilots in tactical simulations. What does this all mean for you? Although Hollywood loves to depict artificial intelligence as robots out to destroy humans, that's far from the case in the real world. Chances are you've been using artificial intelligence for awhile and haven't even noticed.