Artificial intelligence: Friend or nemesis?

The result is that the massive computer power so harnessed helps us to analyse what has happened in the past and, with the use of predictive analytics techniques, opens a window leading to accurate predictions. Undoubtedly, artificial intelligence is fast becoming a major technology for prescriptive analytics, the step beyond predictive analytics that helps us determine how to implement and/or optimise optimal decisions. In business applications, it can assess future risks and quantify probabilities, giving us insights into how to improve market penetration, customer satisfaction, security analysis, trade execution and fraud detection and prevention, while proving indispensable in land and air-traffic control, national security and defence, not to mention a host of healthcare applications such as patientspecific treatments for diseases and illnesses. Typically, the giant search engine firm Google is a pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence, developing self-driving automobiles, smartphone assistants and other examples of machine learning, while it is no secret that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and actor Ashton Kutcher recently invested 40 million in a project focusing on developing artificial brains. In science fiction films such as Matrix, we have seen how futuristic devices will facilitate facial recognition, interpret human comments and perform complex language translations.