AI: An ancient nightmare?

Artificial intelligence’s development seems to be moving at breakneck speed, and the ability of AI to automate even complex tasks – and, potentially, to outwit its human creators – has been making plenty of headlines in recent months. But how far back does our fascination with, and our fear of, AI extend? Matt Elton spoke to Michael Wooldridge, professor of computer science at the University of Oxford, to find out more.

(Ad) Michael Wooldridge is the author of The Road to Conscious Machines: The Story of AI (Pelican, 2020). Buy it now from Amazon:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Road-Conscious-Machines-Story-Pelican-ebook/dp/B07XCC7BMQ/?tag=bbchistory045-21&ascsubtag=historyextra-social-histboty

The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine and BBC History Revealed.

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