Last week scientists at the Children's National Medical Center in Washington, DC, announced a pretty important breakthrough – they've developed a robot that can operate by itself on soft tissue. The robot is called the Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot. Not just because it's another step towards even more precise and safe surgery, which is good for everyone, but because the robot can do this with a level of independence not previously seen. In 1985, doctors used the Puma 560 to assist them in delicate operations, and that's how robotic surgery has developed – as a way of assisting human doctors. It's not hard to see why: a robot may be able to make more precise movements than a person, and it won't get tired or feel the strain of a long operation in the way a surgeon might.

First the machines came for the menial jobs. Since then, they've climbed the corporate ladder and now sit on the board of directors of at least one venture capital firm in Japan. But that's Japan, you say. Well, if you thought your job was safe, you might want to think again. In the cover story of this week's MoneyWeek magazine, Matthew Partridge gets to grips with the nuts and bolts of what's driving the rise of artificial intelligence, or AI for those in the know.

Once the machines came and took the menial jobs. Artificial intelligence has come of age, says Matthew Partridge. Until recently, artificial intelligence (AI) – machines that can think for themselves – was the technology that was long promised but never quite delivered. Even when the Deep Blue computer defeated chess champion Garry Kasparov in a match in 1997, or when a similar machine solved draughts a decade later (ie, could follow a provably optimal strategy), these victories [...]