AI explainer: why machines have an edge

With AlphaGo, DeepMind demonstrated the power of machine-learning to beat humans. Put simply, AI refers to technologies that try to replicate core human functions. Peet van Biljon, formerly of McKinsey and now one of the leading innovation specialists engaging with the topic, sums it up neatly: "It's about computers doing things ever smarter than we used to expect of machines, and ever closer to what we thought only humans could do." The resemblance to human intelligence is no coincidence, he says, as "recent advances all involve some sort of neural network, which is modelled on how we think the human brain works." At the heart of the excitement over AI is the concept of machine learning: computers working things out for themselves without being explicitly programmed to do so.