The Age of Artificial Intelligence Is Here

Artificial intelligence has long been thought of in terms similar to that of fusion power -- it's always 20 years away. Outside, it was a normal morning. Inside, looking out the window and barely noticing the chickadee, the business woman, a manager at a large call center downtown, waited for her morning coffee. It was a short wait. Her coffee maker knew that she woke at 5:30 a.m. It knew that because the alarm clock in the woman's bedroom sensed her movement and saved that information to the woman's Amazon Web Services (AWS) account. The coffee maker, also tied to that AWS account, took the hint and turned itself on. Ten minutes later, the shower came on in the bathroom. This also was noted by the house's systems and that data point was duly recorded by the woman's AWS account. That was the next cue for the coffee maker. It was plumbed directly into the house's water lines, and it opened the valve and filled itself with just the right amount of water to brew the coffee. It was brewing as the woman dressed, and five minutes after the woman appeared, the coffee was delivered to her by her Boston Dynamics personal assistant. She took a sip, just as the chickadee flew away. It was now 6:30 a.m., and time to leave for the office. Just like every other weekday, it would be a peaceful commute. As she left her apartment building and the door closed behind her, her ride was just pulling up to the curb.