Imagine, if you dare, a world where there is no job that a robot can’t do. A world where synthetic surgeons carry out brain surgery, in fully automated hospitals, which take delivery of their medicines from autonomous lorries controlled by intelligent distribution centres where even the cleaners are internet-connected machines.
Picture robotic lawyers, teachers, accountants, investment banking advisers, FTSE 100 chief executives, airline pilots — even, heaven forbid, electronic journalists, with a factual, emotional and linguistic processing power that enables them to write the next day’s front page.
Whether that vision is nirvana or nightmare, artificial intelligence, machine learning, robots, call it what you will, are with us to stay. PWC, the consultancy, estimates that an automated device of some sort could be capable of