You are not about to surrender your life and understanding of the world to machines. That head of yours with its conscious mind, reading this column, remains in the driving seat and always will. It's true that the capacity of machines to supplement human intelligence, monitor us, mimic us and replace routine jobs and tasks is exploding and in the wrong hands could represent a step change in creating dark forms of economic and social control. But that is the battle for democracy, with the confrontation of the worst of capitalism taking on a new dimension. It does not mean that the end of human life is nigh – it means we have to be cleverer in fashioning responses.

I've just run my second briefing on intelligent assistance. Much happened in the few months between sessions. This time, the second half of the day was dominated with stories about bots and their use cases on messaging platforms. It also included the amazing things now possible via automated voice which Amazon's Alexa Challenge exemplifies. Meanwhile IBM's Watson continues its conquest of carbon life forms with the trashing of an extraordinarily talented Go grand master.

I've just run my second briefing on intelligent assistance. Much happened in the few months between sessions. This time, the second half of the day was dominated with stories about bots and their use cases on messaging platforms. It also included the amazing things now possible via automated voice which Amazon's Alexa Challenge exemplifies. Meanwhile IBM's Watson continues its conquest of carbon life forms with the trashing of an extraordinarily talented Go grand master.