Santa Claus has a new helper: Artificial intelligence
ORLANDO, Fla. - The race is already on to find the perfect gifts for family and friends, but this year, Santa has a special helper: AI.
It turns out, artificial intelligence is the new way to spread holiday cheer.
Not sure what to get Grandma? Ask a chatbot.
Thom Morgan, an engineer and an AI simulations architect, says all you have to do is tell it who you're shopping for.
"What do they like to do? What do they not like to do? And then it simply finds things – or what do they already have? I think that was one of the coolest things. And it gives you options, like, you can just click them," Morgan said.
He says it's not just ideas you can get from chatbots, but also the best deals.
"You can ask, ‘Find me the best MacBook Pro for under a certain price’ and it will create a task list. Go search on your behalf, ‘yada, yada,’ and then it will give you all the links to go ahead and choose from," Morgan said.
A new option to the AI game: one-of-a-kind personalized gifts like an AI-created painting based on your description of a memory with a friend. Or, you could offer up AI-created artwork of something you’d like to do but haven’t yet.
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AI isn't waiting for you to make the first move.
You’ve probably already heard of or even seen targeted ads. Those are created by AI monitoring your online data and using it to show you products that may interest you on your web browsers and social media.
People have mixed feelings about that.
Nichole Crainick says she’s suspicious that our phones "listen" to our conversations. "I guess I’m not a fan of it," Crainick said. "It feels like an invasion of privacy."
Stephanie Marshall didn’t mind that much, though. "It feels like I’m being watched at all times, but it’s okay," she said.
Love it or hate it, AI is expanding fast, but Morgan says this is just the beginning.
Sometime in the next few months, you could have your own AI agent assigned just to you. It'll get to know you and offer help before you even ask.
"They’ll know it's Christmastime, and they'll know that you haven't purchased anything for anybody," Morgan offered as an example. "And it will actually start doing the searching on your behalf. It’ll remember what you got last year, and it will find a deal and be like, Oh, well, this looks like it's in your budget."