Machine Over Man: Enter AlphaGo, Exit The Human?

NEW DELHI: Artificial intelligence (AI) or machine intelligence has always been a little scary. We picture evil robots controlling the world and making human beings obsolete or, even worse, using us as energy sources as in the Matrix. The defeat by Google's DeepMind – a computer program – of the world champion in Go, an ancient Chinese board game, has reinforced the apocalyptic vision of machines taking over the world in the popular media. Not that this vision is totally wrong. The more we transfer human skills to the machine, the more obsolescence in the work force.