The quest to create a robot that is indistinguishable from humans has become all-consuming for some scientists, engineers and technicians. The consequences could be both beneficial and catastrophic.
As artificial intelligence technology becomes more capable, it threatens more types of jobs – like lawyers, bureaucrats and managers. What social upheaval will happen if those people can’t find work?
The relationship between corporations, machines and humans defines modern life in ways that Ridley Scott – even in his wildest dreams – couldn’t have imagined.
Humans and computers are collaborating to create a new genre of ‘synthetic literature’. But how does it work and can a computer ever really be creative?
The Industrial Revolution led to centuries of social and economic upheaval. Are economists telling us not to worry about workplace automation because things will be better in a couple hundred years?
Rather than fret about how many jobs future technologies will destroy, we should focus on how to shape them so that they complement the workforce of tomorrow.
Robots have the potential to help support a growing population that wants to age in their own homes. But those helpful machines won’t be the humanoid butlers of science fiction.
Australia’s Chief Scientist Alan Finkel says while it’s possible to build robots to take over jobs – including his own – humanity still has the edge over machines.