No books, no human intervention, no training data and yet it learns, from first principles. Google-owned DeepMind showed last week that its artificial intelligence (AI) programme Alpha Go Zero was able to learn what knowledge was from itself. That’s spooky. Comparisons of AI to the invention of the steam engine or printing press for impact on humans now seem understated.
Even though a lot of AI expertise resides in the top 10-12 tech companies, governments are waking up to it as if it were an arms race. It may well be. In mid-October, the United Kingdom came out with its AI strategy.