What is A.I. and How Will It Affect Your Job?

Earlier this year I wrote about the coming robot storm and the studies that suggest many jobs now held by humans will soon be executed by robots. Yesterday the Guardian published an article by Stephen Hawking who was commenting on, among other things, growing income inequality. He remarked, "The automation of factories has already decimated jobs in traditional manufacturing, and the rise of artificial intelligence is likely to extend this job destruction deep into the middle classes, with only the most caring, creative or supervisory roles remaining." What exactly is AI and how does it differ from basic automation such as a robot working an assembly line? AI stands for Artificial Intelligence and though those words may inspire grandiose images of androids such as Star Trek's Data, the applications for it are far less advanced but also more widespread.