“Do we really need home computers?” This was the headline of an article written by William F Buckley Jr in June 1982.

In it, he mused about the potential of having an entire dictionary programmed into the machine but remarked that this was not worth the price tag the personal computer came with, especially considering its limited utility when compared to other household gadgets, such as the radio or the blender.

Before computers revolutionised how we live and communicate, they were thought to be everything, from an existential threat to humanity, to a fad that would die out in a couple of years. Even Steve Wozniak, American computer pioneer, inventor, and co-founder of Apple, publicly doubted their usefulness. This pessimism toward technological advancements wasn’t new at that time nor did it cease to persist long after. Every invention, from the telegraph in the 1840s to the smartphone in your hand currently, has been met with a degree of scepticism by the public and some doom and gloom speculation from the media. Will artificial intelligence (AI) be any different?

https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/business/artificial-intelligence-economic-ally-or-adversary/