Experts and the media claim that we are on the brink of artificial intelligence (AI), where machines will start to think like humans and take care of everything. Let’s see why this is nonsense.

First, consciousness and meaning are not computable processes (Penrose). This is why computers are very good at saying what happened, but not at saying why it happened, creating new rules, or designing experiments to validate hypotheses.

Second, the term ‘artificial intelligence (AI)’ should be abandoned. When real AI comes along, it won’t be artificial at all. And there is no particular reason to believe that we will be able to recognise or understand it.

We tend to assume that other intelligences will use a sequential, linear language like ours. But reality may be very different and unrecognisable.

Just look at our failure to understand other intelligent species such as elephants, dolphins or whales. We do it on our terms, not theirs. Even after decades of study.

The simplest worm has a brain with 300 neurons. This connectome has been completely mapped, and yet the most basic behaviour of these creatures is barely understood.

We cannot explain the behaviour of the simplest forms of life, but we are on the verge of creating a superhuman, transhuman intelligence that will replace 3 billion years of biological evolution?

It is important to distinguish the noise from the signal. Claims about sentient machines, the Terminator coming for us, etc. are noise. A fantasy designed to create a bubble in semiconductors. The signal is in the specific, industry-focused applications where AI can add real value and make a difference.