The world is divided into two kinds of people – those who think the massive strides we’ve made in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) is cool, and those, like me, who think we need to prepare for the robot apocalypse.

Whichever side of the fence you’re on, you probably aren’t fully aware of exactly how far we’ve come.

AI is increasingly becoming part of our everyday lives, in small but significant ways.

Forbes put together a list of the unsettling (or awesome, depending on how you see it) skills that AI has already mastered and how these skills are used.

Read it and weep.

Read

The artificial intelligence-powered SummarizeBot can read, comprehend, and summarise anything from books to news articles, by identifying and isolating the essential information.

Seth will tell you that a lot of people don’t make it past the headline on most news articles, so this AI already has the edge on humanity.

Write

Even big news organisations like The New York Times, Washington Post, and Reuters are relying more and more on AI to write articles. While many of the articles are quite formulaic, AI can also branch out into more creative writing.

There’s even a novel titled The Day A Computer Writes A Novel, that was shortlisted for a national literary prize in Japan.

Hear and Understand

We’ve all had that moment when Siri or Alexa interrupts a conversation to find out if you need anything. You’re not being paranoid, they are listening.

Speak

One of my least favourite things on the planet at the moment (and trust me when I say there’s some stiff competition out there) is the AI-enabled robot, Sophia, who not only talks, but also sings. 

Google Duplex is also now using AI technology to schedule appointments and complete tasks over the phone in very conversational language.

Move

Two words: Boston Dynamics.

From creepy robot dogs to acrobatic androids, the company is making insane strides in AI and robotics.

Also, while we’re on the topic, check out the robots from MIT. If the backflips and stretching doesn’t get you, the leaf piles are guaranteed to ruin your day.

Read Your Mind

AI can read your mind, so we should all just give up now and hope for a good spot in the human farm when we live in the matrix.

It can interpret brain signals and then create speech. Impressive and life-changing for those with speech impairment, but a little bit unnerving when you consider the mind-reading aspect of the skill.

Even more terrifying is the fact that Facebook and Elon Musk have their own projects underway to capitalise on AI’s mind-reading potential.

Just when you thought Facebook couldn’t get any worse…

Right, that’s enough terror for one day. If you’d like the full list of what AI is capable of, head here. If you really can’t get enough, MyBroadband covered 10 tech predictions for 2020 and beyond.

I’ve got enough nightmare fuel to last me at least a month, so I’m good.

[source:forbes]