It's everywhere, touching everything. And despite still being in its infancy, artificial intelligence (AI) is already promising so much for our work, our society and our lives.
So, I hope I'm not alone in being slightly dispirited to find that so many people are seizing the opportunity to underwhelm by choosing to use this transformative tool to... make virtual action figures of themselves. Hmmmm.....
In the transport sphere, where it will hopefully be used to greater societal effect, the prospect of change is welcome and overdue. Working patterns have already been transformed by AI's potential, offering glimpses of a new world with which our transport networks are still coming to terms.
Of course, funding to fully harness its power remains a challenge for both private and public sectors, and we must do everything we can to attract customers to services, both human and freight.
But AI has already shown its infinite capacity to draw together massive data sets from disparate sources to deliver new insights that will help us understand demand and create a customer experience that will grow usership, make private services more viable and reduce the subsidy burden on taxpayers.
At the same time as sustainability demands greater use of public transport, we now have tools to help us plan networks for optimum efficiency and customer responsiveness. True demand-led services across transport networks are now a real possibility.
The potential that AI brings is already helping to solve problems and bring value across the board, with agents and assistants helping to enhance customer service and interaction, as well as augmenting the training arena.
Video analytics accelerate understanding of customers' behaviour, from passenger flows to occupancy levels. Fraud prevention, fare evasion and dedicated bus lane enforcement are all assisted by AI even at this early stage in its development.
The message is clear and consistent. Tasks and processes once viewed as massively time-consuming, labour intensive or too difficult because of the burden of data collection and number-crunching are now not only achievable, but rapid and accurate like never before.
We have the capability to bring about immense change, for good across our networks. But what if we look to the future?
The birth of my first grandchild, the monumentally beautiful Annie Fern, seven weeks ago, as well as bringing my family unalloyed happiness and joy, has made me stop and ponder 'In what kind of world will she grow up?'
Artificial general intelligence or AGI will bring cognitive abilities way beyond those of any human, and its powers will likely grow exponentially to impact every aspect of society and human life.
At national level, it will impact how government works, how we trade, even how we fight wars. It will change how we produce our food through bioengineering, enabling us to grow disease and pest resistant crops in previously infertile areas. It will transform medicine and accelerate drug trials, dramatically improve early diagnostics and enable more people to be treated early, saving countless lives.
It will change our working patterns, with some occupations disappearing altogether. And before we know it, will be embedded in every aspect of our everyday lives.
What has any of that got to do with transport? Well, transport is simply a function of society – a means of moving people and goods where we need them to be. How will people and goods need to move in the future? Clearly, we must use the tools at our disposal to solve problems that have dogged the transport industry for decades.
But are we being myopic in thinking short term, when a transformation that will dwarf the Industrial Revolution in its impact is about to descend upon us? Should we not, at the same time, be thinking of the world that Annie and her contemporaries will inhabit?
How will transport work then? What do we need to be doing now to prepare for that world, using the burgeoning power of AI to predict, analyse and influence that future and what our transport networks will need to do?
Together, as a society and as a human race, we need to take responsibility for making good things happen with AI. Because if we don't, they will happen to us and the result might be, well, let's just say, sub-optimal.
Or we could, of course, just go on making virtual Barbies and Kens of ourselves.
