You ask a very pointed question and after reading the various responses given, I think it is quite obvious that many have forgotten a very simple rule from deca

You ask a very pointed question and after reading the various responses given, I think it is quite obvious that many have forgotten a very simple rule from decades ago: Garbage In -> Garbage Out. Two things to consider: 1). No computer system will ever go beyond its programming and for an artificial intelligence of any sort, this will be required. I have worked in many systems over the last 40 years and all too often, when you are forced by circumstance or direction, the analysis of those systems have been shown to be essentially garbage presenting what appears to be reasonable results when those results are not at all reasonable. 2). No matter how much data we "feed" these systems, the data will contain rubbish in terms of what we are trying to do with it and this leads only to further rubbish being created. What we need to be cognisant of in regards to these technologies is that they are or will be used by people who do not understand the limitations of these technologies and will believe they are far more capable than they really are. I don't disagree that these tools can be or will be useful as an adjunct to our capabilities. But unless we are actually stupid, we should not be relying on these systems for critical purposes. Of course, this will happen as it has already happened many times in the past and we have suffered from the inherent stupidity involved - we (as humanity) are just too lazy in so many ways. I have the privilege of watching my 5 month old granddaughter grow and when you see the intelligence inherent here and then compare with so called machine intelligence, you quickly realise that all of our efforts in machine intelligence development is nothing compared to what we see in the development of intelligence in human beings.