Well, the example of AI applied to ballistic is a bit particular as the environment - the place you are trying to bomb - will adapt to what you are doing, and t

Well, the example of AI applied to ballistic is a bit particular as the environment - the place you are trying to bomb - will adapt to what you are doing, and thus some human intervention will always be needed, but for a more standard problem where the environment is not adaptive, say, the exploration of an unknown region, I guess an AI could be left all by itself to do some specific tasks. I think it's more relevant in the context of space exploration where sending humans is both more expensive and very risky (note: I have no idea if Curiosity is controlled by an AI or not). Off topic: I'm French as well, and yeah, Polytechnique has a high level of expectation in maths.