Artificial Intelligence – Friend or Foe

Spike Narayan is a seasoned hi-tech executive managing exploratory research in science and technology at IBM. Artificial Intelligence(AI) is an overused term today and as with any ubiquitous technology it is either loved or feared. Why does it have such a split following? It has a lot to do with its history and to some extent with how it is marketed today and more importantly how it is predicted to impact all facets of our lives tomorrow. AI made its humble beginnings many decades ago in academic circles as an endeavor to understand and mimic how humans think and act. While the goal was to understand and copy brain function, the field of AI developed largely with very little active collaboration between computer scientists and neuroscientists.