As artificial intelligence gets smarter, is it game over for humans? | Letters

Jonathan Michie on why robots of the future must be programmed to explain what they do and why, and Chris Percy on AI and bridge

You are right to acknowledge the work of Donald Michie (full disclosure: I'm his son) on artificial intelligence developing new insights rather than relying on brute force, and on the importance of AI communicating these insights to humans (The Guardian view on bridging human and machine learning: it's all in the game, 30 March). This pioneering work is important for the reasons you explain; it also speaks to debates on whether the rise of the robots will result in them enslaving us.

My father argued that it was vital that the robots and AI of the future must be required (programmed) to explain what they were doing and why in terms understandable to humans. Without that, we really will be in trouble - from the routine (why did the driverless car crash?) to the existential.
Jonathan Michie
Professor of innovation and knowledge exchange, and president of Kellogg College, University of Oxford