Don't Look Now, but We May Have Just Missed the Singularity

Most of you know that I'm a learning consultant by trade and I apply the science of learning to real-world learning and performance improvement projects for my clients. You may also have noticed that one of my side interests is artificial and augmented intelligence. At least, I used to think that this was a side interest, only tenuously connected to my "day job," until several different threads converged in my brain and got me thinking: What if the Singularity – meaning the emergence of a true "artificial" intelligence (AI) -- has already happened and most of us just haven't noticed? Here's a short chronology of how my perception started to shift from "this is kind of cool" to "this could change everything." First I need to give you a bit of a disclaimer here: This story is not intended to be a detailed chronology of scientific developments in the fields discussed.