India, Aug. 31 -- When I was a student of medicine, I was once asked by my chief to get a list of references on the subject of 'mycoplasma'. I got busy with this - in those days, one had to look up the Index Medicus, a huge compilation of listed research, to chase this. It was over a month working several hours a day that I could finally arrive at a comprehensive list and my chief was pleased. All the months' work in today's time could be done by a computer in few minutes.

The advent of computers has changed life. It has also brought with it artificial intelligence (AI), which is designed to perform tasks done by intelligent human beings, such as reasoning, learning, problem solving perception etc. We use artificial intelligence daily in...