Why AI might not be such a good idea…

The technological advances over my lifetime have been nothing short of miraculous. From those first programming days when I was a child (using a RML 380z) and my first Texas Instruments calculator, through to the arrival of the supercomputer in your hand, flat screen TVs, self driving cars and wearable tech. For many years scientists have been grappling with Artificial Intelligence and there have alway been major stumbling blocks (usually in the hardware) which have meant that passing the Turing test has been as far from reality as faster-than-light-travel, but not so any more. The last couple of years have seen that milestone being passed, machines able to vanquish chess grand masters and chatbots handling many of our online interactions…yes, things are changing and changing fast. I always do it because it helps me to see whether the things I'm doing now for short-term gains are in fact part of my longer term strategy and when I extrapolate the concept of AI…I'm not sure I like what I see.