Google's AI ambitions show promise – 'if it doesn't kill us'

Google's path to developing machine-learning tools illustrates the stark challenge that tech companies face in trying to make machines act like humans

Machines may yet take over the world, but first they must learn to recognize your dog.

To hear Google executives tell it at their annual developer conference this week, the technology industry is on the cusp of an artificial intelligence, or AI, revolution. Computers, without guidance, will be able to spot disease, engage humans in conversation and creatively outsmart world champions in competition. Such breakthroughs in machine learning have been the stuff of science fiction since Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey.