Recently, I read that Stephen Hawking, the world-famous physicist, had warned people that artificial intelligence (AI) could be very useful or could be the worst thing that ever happened to mankind. The article, which included Hawking's comments, went on to discuss the many things AI could do for us – from analyzing and extracting information from the Internet, to making quick judgments in deploying and firing military weapons, to taking over the world.

In the comments section of the article were people who either agreed with Stephen Hawking or (much more often) brushed off his comments by saying "who would create such a thing" or "only a supreme being could create something which is truly intelligent."

Those of you who have been reading my work for a while know that I am a great fan of Dr. Alan Turing, and those who know of Dr. Turing's work also know that his interest in computers stemmed largely from the desire to know how the human mind worked and the desire to create a machine that could think like a human. Dr. Turing's "test" for what constitutes artificial intelligence is still used today, 60 years after his death.

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