The rapid growth of artificial intelligence (AI) has serious implications for our future. The issues and their oversight are not just the domain of computer engineers, technologists and AI experts. Policymakers, Smart Nation experts and security officials too should come together with them to ponder implications and set out the parameters, if needed, for future research and development.

In March this year, AlphaGo, a machine created by Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) arm, DeepMind, trounced Lee Sedol, a grandmaster at Go, the ancient Chinese game. AlphaGo used cutting-edge AI to beat a player acknowledged to be one of the greatest ever.

AlphaGo’s achievement comes almost 20 years after IBM’s Deep Blue beat reigning world chess champion Gary Kasparov. Deep Blue used brute-force calculation and sheer computing power. AlphaGo is a far more complex machine utilising deep neural networks and reinforcement learning, independent of human input. The machine learnt on its own as it progressed and got stronger as it played.

… Shashi Jayakumar is Senior Fellow and Head, Centre of Excellence for National Security, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. An earlier version appeared in The Straits Times.