It began with the "heartless" Tin man from the Wizard of Oz and continued with the humanoid robot that impersonated Maria in Metropolis. By the 1950s, we had a generation of scientists, mathematicians, and philosophers with the concept of artificial intelligence (or AI) culturally assimilated in their minds. One such person was Alan Turing, a young British polymath who explored the mathematical possibility of artificial intelligence. Turing suggested that humans use available information as well as reason in order to solve problems and make decisions, so why can't machines do the same thing? This was the logical framework of his 1950 paper, Computing Machinery and Intelligence in which he discussed how to build intelligent machines and how to test their intelligence.

For over seventy years the story of artificial intelligence (AI) has been one of saturating the capabilities of AI to the level of computational power available, and then waiting for Moore's Law to catch up. During that time there have been bubbles of AI hype, research booms, funding busts and a quiet rebirth. The AI story starts with Alan Turing, a young British polymath who explored the mathematical possibility of artificial intelligence. Turing suggested that humans use available information as well as reason in order to solve problems and to make decisions. Turing postulated that machines which could do the same thing.

From Gary Kasparov to Elon Musk, the list of those who say AI needs to be applied such that it augments us, not compete with us, is long. Yet the supply of reports warning that AI threatens jobs doesn't seem to have an end. On the other hand, a new report looking at a technology called Swarm AI may provide a much more benign fix. Speaking at a recent conference, chess legend, Gary Kasparov, said that the public perception of AI has been overly influenced by Hollywood: the reality is far more positive -- Kasparov's take on AI is a reason for optimism Swarms can be intelligent-- there is no great insight here. Those who study Emergence understand this, from ant colonies to cities, great things can be achieved from simpler entities working together.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution, an age of automation, advanced AI, and human-machine collaboration is by most measures, well underway. In recent years, we have seen rapid advancements in machine intelligence, so much so that AI is matching or outperforming humans in many different areas. This is not to say that humans are obsolete. We still have our strengths and by recognizing what they are, can we take advantage of machines and get the best of both worlds. In imagine identification, Google's Neural Image Assessment (NIA) has been trained to accurately predict how we're likely to respond to a particular image based on how aesthetically pleasing it is.

The notion of artificial intelligence is something which has long excited technological society. Among the various stories constructed around it are (as in the film Terminator) those of robots ruling the world with humans fighting a losing battle against them. Gary Kasparov, the world chess champion, was matched against an IBM supercomputer named Deep Blue in 1996 and 1997 under tournament conditions and lost in the 1997 rematch. Since chess is, in the popular imagination, the height of intellectual prowess, this created quite a stir and it was anticipated by the popular press that humankind would eventually have to make way for a greater intelligence -- one which it had itself created. 'AI' is a fairly broad term which includes a number of unglamorous capabilities that fall far short of defeating a reigning chess champion. Capabilities generally classified as AI as of 2017 include successfully understanding human speech, competing at a high level in strategic game systems (such as chess and the Chinese game Go), self-driving cars, military simulations, and interpreting complex data.

It began with the "heartless" Tin man from the Wizard of Oz and continued with the humanoid robot that impersonated Maria in Metropolis. By the 1950s, we had a generation of scientists, mathematicians, and philosophers with the concept of artificial intelligence (or AI) culturally assimilated in their minds. One such person was Alan Turing, a young British polymath who explored the mathematical possibility of artificial intelligence. Turing suggested that humans use available information as well as reason in order to solve problems and make decisions, so why can't machines do the same thing? This was the logical framework of his 1950 paper, Computing Machinery and Intelligence in which he discussed how to build intelligent machines and how to test their intelligence.

The Department of Defense (DoD) is increasingly interested in Artificial Intelligence (AI). During a recent trip to Amazon, Google, and other Silicon Valley companies, Secretary of Defense James Mattis remarked that AI has "got to be better integrated by the DoD." What do we mean by the term AI? In particular, what does "deep learning" mean? What are the advantages, disadvantages, and risks of using AI?

AI is a fascinating, complex and occasionally scary technology, with the power to change the world. Dr Nicola Millard gives her thoughts on its evolution. Is artificial intelligence going to take over the world? This is the question that is being debated around the planet at the moment. Talk is rife of mass unemployment, existential threats and whether this technology is safe (especially in the context of self-driving cars and drones).