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You are viewing ARCHIVED CONTENT released online between 1 April 2010 and 24 August 2018 or content that has been selectively archived and is no longer active. Content in this archive is NOT UPDATED, and links may not function.Extract from article by Steve Lohr
Predictions made in the ’90s about how the new World Wide Web would shake the foundations of the media, advertising and retailing industries did prove to be true, for example. But it happened a decade later, years after the dot-com bust.
Today’s A.I., even optimists say, is early in that cycle.
“I think future generations are going to look back on the A.I. revolution and compare its impact to the steam engine or electricity,” said Erik Brynjolfsson, director of the Initiative on the Digital Economy at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management. “But, of course, it is going to take decades for this technology to really come to fruition.”
There are reasons for enthusiasm. Computers continue to get cheaper even as they get more powerful, making it easier than ever to crunch vast amounts of data in an instant. Also, sensors, smartphones and other tech devices are all over the place, feeding more and more information into computers that are learning more and more about us.
Read the complete article at The Promise of Artificial Intelligence Unfolds in Small Steps