Will Transformers Take Over Artificial Intelligence?

Imagine going to your local hardware store and seeing a new kind of hammer on the shelf. You've heard about this hammer: It pounds faster and more accurately than others, and in the last few years it's rendered many other hammers obsolete, at least for most uses. With a few tweaks -- an attachment here, a twist there -- the tool changes into a saw that can cut at least as fast and as accurately as any other option out there. In fact, some experts at the frontiers of tool development say this hammer might just herald the convergence of all tools into a single device. A similar story is playing out among the tools of artificial intelligence.