Artificial intelligence is already everywhere, we need to adapt

Any smartphone owner or Google user is already intimately connected with artificial intelligence, but knowing what that means is a different matter. AI's ubiquity has not yet translated to a corresponding understanding of what and how this revolutionary technology system works, according to a pioneer in the industry. "I think the challenge for us is it's both everywhere and it's kind of receding into the background and people are not necessarily aware," Sir Nigel Shadbolt, one of the UK's pre-eminent computer scientists, tells The National from his home in Oxford. Can artificial intelligence save the British model of education? AI's transformation of global education is only just getting started "AI is a totally pervasive technology. It literally has become a new utility. We don't recognise it that way but the supercomputers we carry around in our pockets - our mobile phones - are running all sorts of AI-inspired and directly AI-implemented algorithms to recognise your voice or recognise a face in a photo you've just taken and label it, or when it's reaching back into the cloud services to decide what to recommend to you, or how to route you efficiently to your next meeting. These things are all running."