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AI and Your Money

By Susan Gonzales on 12/13/2024 @ 05:14 AM

AI and Your Money

You may already know that AI is being used behind the scenes in almost every aspect of our money. AI tracks user behavior to detect suspicious activities or unauthorized access. AI notifies us about overspending, upcoming bills, or unusual account activity. AI tools provide insights into credit scores and suggest ways to improve them. AI evaluates creditworthiness faster and more accurately by analyzing alternative data sources.

These are all great tools but like everything with AI - there are some good and not so good things about how it works. In this case, beware of AI and applying for a loan for a house, car, personal items or anything! The AI behind loan applications has been known to get it wrong because the algorithm (the instructions) have been written too narrowly and can discriminate.

For example, AI tools track when we make a mistake and correct it on our loan application. It identifies our shopping patterns, bill payment history, zip code and more. As you can imagine, a person is more likely to make mistakes applying for a loan on a device. What about someone who is impaired? AI can discriminate on a loan application based on zip code. It will know if the zip code is from a higher or lower-income area.

Beware of the “Click here and get approved for a loan in minutes!!” ads online. These could be fake sources or financial institutions with high interest rates to take advantage of people or they could have a bad reputation in loan management. Most importantly, do your homework and only seek financial loans from reputable financial institutions. Embrace AI literacy - understanding how the basics work.

Your money matters!

1. Budgeting and Expense Tracking

  • Personal Finance Apps: Apps like Mint or YNAB use AI to categorize transactions, analyze spending patterns, and recommend budget adjustments.
  • Automated Alerts: Notify users about overspending, upcoming bills, or unusual account activity.

2. Investment Management

  • Robo-Advisors: Platforms like Betterment or Wealthfront use AI to create and manage diversified investment portfolios based on risk tolerance and financial goals.
  • Algorithmic Trading: AI-driven algorithms execute trades based on market data and trends, optimizing returns.
  • Market Predictions: AI analyzes news, social media, and financial reports to predict market movements.

3. Fraud Detection

  • Real-Time Monitoring: AI systems flag unusual transactions, helping prevent fraud or identity theft.
  • Behavior Analysis: Tracks user behavior to detect suspicious activities or unauthorized access.

4. Credit and Loan Management

  • Credit Score Monitoring: AI tools provide insights into credit scores and suggest ways to improve them.
  • Loan Approvals: AI evaluates creditworthiness faster and more accurately by analyzing alternative data sources.
  • Debt Management: Offers strategies to pay off debt efficiently by simulating repayment plans.

5. Personalized Financial Advice

  • Chatbots and Virtual Assistants: AI-powered assistants like Erica (Bank of America) or Cleo answer financial queries and provide tailored advice.
  • Goal Tracking: Helps set and achieve savings goals by recommending actionable steps.

6. Tax Optimization

  • Tax Filing Tools: Tools like TurboTax use AI to identify deductions, reduce errors, and simplify tax filing.
  • Audit Predictions: AI evaluates the likelihood of a tax audit and offers preemptive solutions.

7. Savings Optimization

  • Automated Savings: Apps like Digit analyze income and spending habits to transfer small amounts into savings without impacting cash flow.
    Interest Rate Comparisons: AI recommends the best savings accounts or investment options for higher returns.

8. Business Financial Management

  • Cash Flow Forecasting: AI predicts future cash flow for businesses, helping them plan better.
  • Invoice Management: Automates invoicing and payment reminders to ensure timely payments.
  • Expense Reconciliation: Streamlines tracking and categorizing business expenses.

Why AI Matters to You

By Susan Gonzales on 12/06/2024 @ 06:50 AM

Why AI Matters to You

Have you ever searched for a job, applied for a loan, written an essay, struggled with solving math problems, or faced a serious health issue? If you answered “yes” to any of these, then AI matters to you! Why? Because AI is deeply embedded in almost every aspect of our daily lives. Think about when you pick up your device. Did you use your face to unlock it? That’s AI—facial recognition at work. Did you click on a website or watch a video online? Every click teaches AI about your preferences—what you like, what you don’t, and what you might want to see more of. It’s all powered by AI.

Why AI Is So Relevant

AI relies on data to function, and we generate that data every time we interact with technology. It simplifies our lives in many ways:

  • Personalized Recommendations: It suggests items or content tailored to our interests.
  • Instant Answers: It responds to our questions or prompts in seconds.

These are examples of predictive AI (anticipating your behavior based on your data) and generative AI (creating responses or content based on your inputs).

It sounds great, right? But AI isn’t perfect.

When AI Gets It Wrong

AI can produce incorrect or biased results due to flaws in its programming. For example, a married couple might apply for the same loan with identical financial details, yet only the male partner gets approved. Why? This could be due to bias in the algorithm—the "recipe" behind AI's decision-making—which may not account for traits equally across genders.

Bias in AI reflects the limitations of the data or perspective used to create it, making fairness a critical issue.

Protecting Your Privacy

Another essential aspect of AI is data privacy. AI collects and uses your data, often without your full awareness. While this can make life more convenient, it also creates risks if that data falls into the wrong hands.

The Takeaway: Understanding AI to Empower Yourself

AI is woven into the fabric of modern life, shaping how we work, communicate, and make decisions. By understanding how it works, you can:

  • Maximize opportunities: Use AI for job searches, managing businesses, or addressing health challenges.
  • Stay safe: Protect your data and navigate AI tools wisely.

Now is the time to learn about AI—not just to use it effectively, but also to ensure it works for you and protects your interests.

How Casinos Use AI

By Susan Gonzales on 11/21/2024 @ 08:24 AM

AI and Casinos - Understanding AI in everyday life and improving your AI literacy will shed light on how we interact with AI everywhere, including casinos. Casinos leverage AI to enhance operations, improve customer experiences, ensure security, and maximize profits.

Some highlights include Personalized Customer Experience, in which AI analyzes players' preferences, spending habits, and gameplay patterns to provide personalized offers, such as bonuses, free play, or tailored experiences.

Fraud Detection and Security leverages AI to prevent cheating by analyzing video surveillance and game data to detect suspicious activities like card counting or collusion among players. AI also allows casinos to identify underaged gamblers.

Facial Recognition: AI-enhanced cameras can identify known cheaters or individuals banned from the premises.

Casinos also use for Customer Support by using Chatbots and Virtual Assistants: AI-powered chatbots provide instant customer support, answering questions about promotions, reservations, or gaming rules.

As you can see, a casino experience is filled with AI.

Do You Know an Artist, Musician, Graphic Designer, or Video Producer?

By Susan Gonzales on 11/18/2024 @ 05:38 AM

AI and Creatives - Most of us have artists, graphic artists, musicians, and other creatives in our family or close circle of friends. Now is a great time for the creative community to explore new AI tools. The purpose is to understand the opportunities and challenges as you navigate a new world of artificial intelligence with direct implications to the creative world. AI literacy will create a more balanced experience for old and new creatives.

Creatives, almost more than any other population, are impacted by AI virtually everyday. New Generative AI tools can mimic many outputs as human creators. Jobs will be created, impacted and replaced with these new Generative AI tools. I’ve had this conversation with my creative friends. The creatives I know are apprehensive about exploring new Generative AI tools and prefer to keep a distance. But, by doing so they will not have a basic understanding of the technology before deciding to avoid it. At very least, creatives can explore new Generative AI tools and make an informed decision about the technology.

"To all the creatives out there, I encourage you to rethink what business you are in and how you can evolve with AI."

I think you are in the business of creating. Be it art, stories, or something else imaginative, you are a creator in the business of creating.

"Like humans, AI has faults. If you’ve ever tried one of the best AI image generators, you already know that they don’t always come out as expected, or even usable."

To learn more about the ongoing conversation that inspired this blog, check out this article from Tom’s Guide.

AI and Outdoor Activity

By Susan Gonzales on 11/15/2024 @ 06:39 AM

AI and Outdoor Activity - There are several exercise apps, but I use Strava, which leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance user experience and data analysis in several key areas. Understanding how exercise apps work is part of AI literacy. The more we know and share, the more we can use AI safely.

1. Athlete Intelligence

Strava's "Athlete Intelligence" is an AI-powered feature that provides personalized insights based on users' activity data. It analyzes workout metrics—such as pace, heart rate, elevation, and power—and translates them into simple, personalized insights and guidance. This helps athletes of all levels understand their performance and progress. This feature offers summaries immediately after uploading activities like runs, rides, walks, or hikes. It is very helpful if you are trying to improve your outdoor activity.

2. Leaderboard Integrity

To maintain fair competition on its platform, Strava employs AI to detect and flag suspicious activities that may distort Segment and Challenge leaderboards. By training machine learning models on millions of activities, Strava can identify and address potential instances of data manipulation or inaccuracies, ensuring a level playing field for all users. This is helpful for those seeking a competitive edge. Not me. I'm just having a good time outdoors!

3. Route Suggestions

Strava utilizes AI and machine learning to suggest routes to users based on their preferences and activity history. By analyzing the vast amount of data shared by its community, Strava can recommend personalized routes, helping users discover new paths and optimize their training sessions.

Through these AI-driven features, Strava aims to provide a more personalized, fair, and engaging experience for its global community of athletes and anyone looking for some outdoor fun.

To learn more about Strava and features, visit www.strava.com/features.

Keeping Up with the Evolution of AI

By Susan Gonzales on 11/11/2024 @ 07:05 AM

AI and AGI - You may have heard that the new U.S. Administration is expected to move quickly on AGI. What is AGI? Essentially, AGI is what we have seen in Sci-fi movies where robots interact with humans in daily life.

Artificial general intelligence (AGI) is a field of AI research that aims to create software that can learn, think, and understand like a human. Generalization: AGI can apply knowledge and skills learned in one area to other areas, allowing it to adapt to new situations. Common sense: AGI has a large amount of knowledge about the world, including facts, relationships, and social norms. Learning: AGI can learn from experiences and apply that knowledge to new situations. Problem-solving: AGI can solve problems, reason, understand language, and use common sense.

AGI differs from other types of AI because it can perform tasks it wasn't explicitly trained or developed to accomplish. AGI requires AI systems to interact physically with the external environment. For example, an AGI-powered self-driving car might analyze traffic congestion from other vehicles instead of following pre-programmed instructions.

"As we are on the brink of these potential breakthroughs, we must assess whether we are truly ready for this transformation. Ready or not, if these predictions are correct, a fundamentally new world will soon arrive."

"A child born today could enter kindergarten in a world transformed by AGI. Will AI caregivers be far behind? Suddenly, the futuristic vision from Kazuo Ishiguro in “Klara and the Sun” of an android artificial friend for those children when they reach their teenage years does not seem so farfetched. The prospect of AI companions and caregivers suggests a world with profound ethical and societal shifts, one that might challenge our existing frameworks."

The idea of AGI being introduced to a world where most people don't understand AI basics sounds like a frightening outcome. AI literacy today will create a foundation of knowledge for everyone before we enter a world with AGI.

To learn more about the ongoing conversation that inspired this blog, check out this article from VentureBeat.

AI in the Community with Congressman Adriano Espaillat

By Susan Gonzales on 10/04/2024 @ 07:17 AM

AI in Harlem 📣 - AIandYou continued our series of AI in the Community events with policymakers to host AI-101 sessions and conversations between local leaders and their communities.

Silicon Harlem, a local tech training center, hosted our event with Congressman Adriano Espaillat, a U.S. House AI Caucus member. This series of events aims to create local, viral conversations about AI literacy to prepare communities for the opportunities and challenges AI brings to all.

You can see from the community photo that it was a good time. Fear of AI 🫣 was decreased, and curiosity 🤔 was increased. Mission accomplished!

AI, Creatives and AI Literacy

By Susan Gonzales on 10/01/2024 @ 09:00 AM

AI and Creatives - I share this not to call out my former boss. I share to illustrate the PROS and CONS of virtually all new AI tools. The missed opportunity when announcing new AI tools is educating people about its benefits and how these tools can help them as creative artists, educators, students, parents, and seniors.

It is not enough to show the bells and whistles of new AI tools and walk away. We need to walk people through the upside...and the risks. Just showing a new AI tool can freak out people and increase fear, which we don't need. The greater the fear, the lower the adoption of new AI tools. AI literacy is the key.

"Best-selling author Jason Pinter proclaimed that Zuckerberg’s creation made him “effing angry.”

“Mark Zuckerberg used AI to illustrate his daughter’s children’s book and this makes me so effing angry,” Pinter wrote. “He could have hired a PHALANX of amazing illustrators, but instead he used a computer program. If we don’t support actual artists, there won’t be any more artists.”

Yet despite the backlash, many commenters still appeared to side with AI. In response to Pinter, one user argued that Zuckerberg’s use of AI was perfectly justified.

“I think you’ve missed the point of the exercise. if you’re going to make a children’s book instead of buying one of the thousands available, you’re doing it because you think you can make it personal,” the user responded.

“Being rich doesn’t change that. For Zuck, AI is important and personal (to him). Hiring artists won’t get you a better book, and it probably won’t be more personal.”

To learn more about the ongoing conversation that inspired this blog, check out this article from Daily Dot.

Our CEO on AI Literacy and Education

By Susan Gonzales on 09/24/2024 @ 07:00 AM

AI in Education - AI has the potential to be a great equalizer - if we embrace the technology and know how to use it safely.

I've been hearing from educators a lot lately. Everything from "We are banning Generative AI at our school" to "We have encouraged our students to explore new AI tools."

Respectfully, the former does not appear realistic as it could hold students back from participating in the new world of AI and its opportunities and challenges. AI fear is real.

This is why AI Literacy is more crucial now than ever before.

To learn more about the ongoing conversation that inspired this blog, check out this article from Fast Company.