THE cognitive era is fundamentally transforming the relationship between humans and machines courtesy artificial intelligence by delivering innovative cognitive solutions that enable positive benefits for society and bring new opportunities for business. Thus, it is not unreasonable to expect that within this rapidly growing body of digital information lie the secrets for defeating cancer, reversing climate change or even fixing the global economy.

There is no cause for fearing that super-human AI will take over from humans. We might be years even decades away from an artificial general intelligence that can ‘think’ on more than one subject. Even then it would still not be a match for human intelligence, which is influenced by emotions and other criteria.

The question of how far we are from artificial intelligence is complex. When it comes to using computers to make sense of the world from a scientific, government or business perspective, artificial intelligence is here in a big way, and computers will continue to play a larger role as these tools are further developed. However, when it comes to generalised human-like artificial intelligence, computers lag far behind. So our future is safe and in human hands.

Muhammad Saif Adil

Karachi

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2017