Embracing the power of artificial intelligence

A recent McKinsey study suggests that 45 percent of on-the-job activities can be automated by deploying artificial intelligence. That includes file clerks, whose jobs can become 80 percent automated, or CEOs' jobs that can be 20 percent automated because AI systems radically simplify and target CEOs' reading of reports, risk detection or pattern recognition. There is understandable consternation about the unbridled power that machines may have over human decision-making. Elon Musk has called AI "our biggest existential threat." On the other side are enthusiasts eager for smart machines to improve our lives and the planet's health.