3 Things Alan Turing Never Imagined

Alan Turing is considered the father of artificial intelligence, and rightfully so. Marrying mathematical study with computer science, Turing was the first to contend that computers could think like humans, and he pioneered the concept of machines that could perform tasks on par with human experts – a bedrock concept of modern AI computer science to this day. Given the intense interest in AI of recent years, Turing is more famous now than he was at the time of his death, 15 days shy of his 42nd birthday in 1954. I'm constantly amazed by Turing's prescience in laying the theoretical groundwork for what he called thinking computers, those that exhibit intelligent behavior equal to or indistinguishable from that of a human. However, Turing's work occurred more than 65 years ago, and -- give the guy a break -- while several of his predictions are uncannily on the mark, he wasn't able to foresee all the advances that are shaping life in 2019.