Can humans be ever enslaved by machines that are capable enough to take over the world and rule over it or Is it possible that after a few hundred years we might become extinct and the whole world is taken over by robots?

Many science fiction movies have tried to show a picture of our planet where we are fighting for our existence from our own creations. Famous among these are ‘Artificial Intelligence’ directed, produced and written by Steven Spielberg and I, Robot directed by Alex Proyas. Both these movies are based on the technology of artificial intelligence. We still do not know what future has in store for us but it is quite possible that perhaps with the help of artificial intelligence, such machines are created that can understand emotions, can love, hate, kill or do anything that a human being is capable of doing. We might bring a dead man to life by using a strand of DNA or treat most deadly diseases infecting us. These wild imaginations might turn out to be true, who knows, just wait for time and see.

Artificial Intelligence can be described as science of intelligence and exploration primarily involving hypotheses that can be tested. It is concerned basically with performing tasks that when carried out by human beings require intelligence like story writing, music composition, diagnosis of various diseases, proving difficult mathematical theorems, planning trips, designing computers, playing chess, negotiating contracts and giving legal advises.

Developed around 50 years ago, this computer software has transformed our lifestyles and provided solutions to many real life problems. While calling through a cell phone or sending an email, have you ever wondered from where this information is coming from? The answer is Artificial Intelligence software programs. AI has wide applications in many fields like in banks to track fraud transactions, in cell phone companies for voice recognition, in medical industry for diagnosis and treatment of various diseases, by different search engines to organize data and enhance the search results. The other important areas where AI is being used widely are bionics, cybernetics, syntactic pattern recognition, computer vision, statistical pattern recognition, cognitive psychology and neuroscience.

The future of AI seems to be very bright especially if we go by the predictions of Artificial Intelligence researchers. The AI experts are claiming that by the middle of the century we will see intelligent machines all around us. Some scientists even say that in the coming 30 years the working of the human brain will be decoded and this will lead to the development of hi-tech artificial intelligence systems. Latest researches are trying to build robots that behave like human beings. If this thought is transformed in to a reality then who knows, our role will be changed completely. Robots have already taken the place of factory workers and are even acting as surgeons, pilots and astronauts.

By the turn of the century we might see robots performing all the work and human beings getting more and more time for leisure and relaxation. On the other hand they can also render humans jobless and perhaps the story of movies like Artificial Intelligence and I, Robots may become a reality. Thus Artificial Intelligence can be considered as one of the most fascinating and challenging intellectual development of this century.