Humans outwitted?

The Rev Dr John Cameron of St Andrews emails: “One of my grandsons asked me whether computers will ever become more intelligent than humans.

“I replied that there’s no inherent reason why artificial intelligence shouldn’t outpace the average person.

“It would, of course, require the machine to self-improve by trial and error and then to start reprogramming its own code.

“The final outcome for mankind of such a machine will depend on whether it decides to tell us how to keep it under control.

“That thought appeared to worry him a lot less than my wife who overheard the conversation.”