Artificial
Intelligence (AI) is the mantra of the current era. The phrase is
intoned by technologists, academicians, journalists and venture
capitalists alike. As with many phrases that cross over from technical
academic fields into general circulation, there is significant
misunderstanding accompanying the use of the phrase. But this is not the
classical case of the public not understanding the scientists — here
the scientists are often as befuddled as the public. The idea that our
era is somehow seeing the emergence of an intelligence in silicon that
rivals our own entertains all of us — enthralling us and frightening us
in equal measure. And, unfortunately, it distracts us.
There
is a different narrative that one can tell about the current era.
Consider the following story, which involves humans, computers, data and
life-or-death decisions, but where the focus is something other than
intelligence-in-silicon fantasies. When my spouse was pregnant 14 years
ago, we had…