Future Shock

The Accelerating Growth of Intelligence in Machines Could Make Them a New “Life Form” by 2040. Can Man Evolve and Adapt Himself to Co-exist With This New “Species”? Or Are We Heading Towards a Terrible Dystopia?

- Prithwis Mukerjee

FIRST WE HAD computers, then we had the world wide web and now we are talking about IOT, the Internet of Things. Computers are now pervasive and have occupied every nook and corner of life. Artificial intelligence seems to be growing bigger, faster and smarter every day. Science fiction writers have often spoken of machines taking over the world but is that pure fantasy or is it a matter of time before this fiction becomes fact? In this article, we will explore the genesis of artificial intelligence, examine how fast these are mutating and morphing into more advanced levels and finally speculate on what this means in terms of employment and other key indices of human society. But first, let us see...

HOW MACHINES LEARN

When I was a member of the faculty at IIT Kharagpur, one of my senior colleagues had told me that we should not try to teach students, but instead, help them learn. Can this idea be extended to machines?