AI Friend OR foe?

In healthcare, banking and even for restaurant bookings, artificial intelligence is on the rise, but should we be worried?

- Ellie Fennell investigates

Talking robots and self-driving cars used to only appear in Hollywood blockbusters. But the pace of development in artificial intelligence (AI) means such futuristic notions are no longer merely science fiction.

AI is already integrated seamlessly into our daily lives. With more than half of UK homes owning a smart speaker, customer service chatbots and personalised product recommendations being widely used by online retailers, and Google searches now giving an AI-generated answer to almost every question, many of us are engaging with the technology every day without even realising it.

But what actually is it? Artificial intelligence is the catch-all name given to computer programmes that can learn, reason and act like humans, performing tasks that typically require human intelligence, such as speech recognition, answering questions, interpreting data and creating visuals. It's this ability of AI to mimic humans that makes many concerned. What if AI makes our jobs redundant? Will robots take control of systems they shouldn't? Can we trust AI to make decisions that materially impact our lives? Ultimately, should we be adopting or avoiding this technology?

According to AI consultant Dr Catherine Breslin, AI will soon be impossible to avoid. 'It is everywhere already - from the simple photo recognition software on our phones to movie recommendations on Netflix, to hospitals where it's helping to analyse X-rays,' she says. 'It can perform so many tasks and, with new developments all the time, it looks likely to play a significant role in all our futures.'