Astronomy, healthcare, and social justice: How will AI change the world?

Artificial intelligence has seen a resurgence of late in the cultural consciousness. Doomsayers worry AI will prove an existential threat to humanity, futurists wonder how we'll integrate aware algorithms into our social fabric, and optimists see further develops as the path to unimaginable human prosperity. But it is often unclear which "AI" is being discussed in any given debate or hot take. The umbrella term can signify artificial general intelligence, also called "strong AI," essentially a program that could perform cognitive tasks similar to, or beyond those of, people. It is also completely theoretical and conclusions about it are, at best, guesswork.