The recent Google saga has stirred up a hornet’s nest over ‘sentient AI’ and spurred reexamination of this question and its implications for AI’s future. Sentient AI is not a bad thing per se since it would enable it to more effectively read human emotions.

The overuse of antibiotics has led to the evolution of drug-resistant ‘superbugs.’ Though artificial intelligence can discover newer, more powerful drugs, these will likely cause bacteria to evolve yet again to become even more resistant. Instead, a longer-lasting solution is needed that will address the root cause of all this, and AI could very well hold the key to making this a reality too.

Medical image recognition is a deep, complex area, certainly in the early diagnosis of retinopathy. Anthropologist and AI expert Alec Balasescu shows how machine learning is helping to make the sector’s vision become much clearer.