A year and a half ago, there were a few websites that offered online chat, but only during business hours. Now, almost every retail, cell phone, or travel site has a bot that’s always ready to chat. Do they really have someone standing by just for a chat? The answer is, of course, “No.” Instead of an employee typing to you in the wee hours of the morning, there is an artificial intelligence on the other end of the line. You’ve reached a Chatbot.

The evolution of robots continues to delight and surprise as machines grow closer and closer to human form and function. What used to be science fiction in 1921 may soon be a reality in 2021 if robots that already exist like Alexa and Roomba merge into one humanoid bot that can learn to think independently and vacuum. But the recent explosion of robotics is deceptive, making it seem like they just came to fruition. In fact, Robotics has had a much longer history; in fact, the first known example of a functioning robotic device dates to a water clock somewhere around 1500 BCE found in an Egyptian burial tomb. 

When it comes to artificial intelligence, the word “safety” conjures up visions of sci-fi movies in which machines wage war against their human creators. There is nothing safe about an intelligent machine that can travel through time and become an unstoppable foe who tracks down John Connor a la The Terminator!

When it comes time that an AI passes the Turing Test, life as we know it will shift. There will be significant ethical ramifications to which we currently don’t have ways to address. However, we better figure it out soon because this day is coming faster than you think.