Artificial Intelligence (AI) is enjoying one of its periodic moments in the limelight. Why this interest now? Some of this we can put down to the ongoing fascination Hollywood seems to have with AI. From Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 to Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, Stephen Spielberg’s Artificial Intelligence to Alex Garland’s Ex Machina; Hollywood has made enjoyable films and good money out of AI.

These films have inspired generations of AI students. Indeed AI was once described as making computers that behave like the ones in the movies! However, Hollywood invariably takes a dystopian view of the subject. The computers and robots are usually mad, bad and dangerous to know. Yet this doesn’t seem to hinder AI’s popularity.

A second reason that AI is in vogue, is that some of the planet’s greatest scientists and innovators have been telling us to take care. Stephen Hawking is worried that super smart computers could spell the end of the human race. Elon Musk donated $10million to keep AI beneficial. And a year ago we saw the publication of an open letter from leading Artificial Intelligence experts, arguing for vigilance so as to ensure that this fast developing field benefits humanity.

A third reason that AI is much talked about is because our machines seem to be getting ever more prescient, even anticipating our needs. This is what struck Stephen Hawking when he upgraded the system that enables him to write and communicate despite his motor neuron disease. What the computer could do surprised him – just how smart it was – seeming to anticipate what he wanted to write next. This set him thinking about just how intelligent computers were becoming and how quickly that was happening.

The fact is that our computers just get better and better. Propelled by the exponents that drive the science and engineering of hardware and software, our devices become twice as powerful every eighteen months or so. The machines my students use are now one million times more powerful than those I used when I began my studies in AI.

These more powerful machines have more data to access using more sophisticated algorithms; they contain more sensors that deliver more functionality. And, of course, they can draw on even more power and data from the Cloud. The result is a supercomputer in our pockets that sometimes acts as a phone, but can also recognise speech, faces, and patterns of all kinds. A device that can connect to the colossal repository of human knowledge that is the World Wide Web and answer questions on anything from Genghis Khan to the weather in Houston, current traffic conditions in London to a book I might like to read given my reading preferences over the past few years.

AI research has exploited the increased power of computers and the access to huge amounts of data to write programs that can “learn”, “understand” and “anticipate”. This is why when you ask your phone “When did Michelangelo die?” certain brands will answer in synthesised speech “Michelangelo died the 8^th of February 1564 aged 88”. It will also provide you with a screen full of additional information about the Italian genius and polymath. This kind of response is now accepted as normal and routine.