Artificial Intelligence: Coming to Rescue You … or to Replace You?

In 1968, Arthur C. Clarke’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” brought us HAL 9000. For those who read the novels or watched the film, visions of HAL are probably what come to mind when the words “artificial intelligence” (AI) are uttered. HAL was capable of lip reading, facial recognition, interpreting emotion (computer vision), conversation (computer audition, natural language processing), art appreciation, chess playing, autonomous self-monitoring, automated reasoning (intelligent agents, deep learning) and more. Combined, these features are the foundation for what is typically referred to as artificial general intelligence, defined as a machine that can successfully perform any intellectual task that a human can.¹  If you stop to think about the devices in your operating theater, do you recognize any of these features? Think a little more. O.K., now back to HAL: unfortunately, HAL did not adhere to Asimov’s “Three Laws of Robotics” when faced with shutdown.²  Instead, HAL...