New Delhi, Sept. 15 -- One of the products in our company is a viscosity controller used in the printing process. The equipment continuously senses the viscosity of the ink and, depending on whether it is above or below the desired level, automatically adds or reduces the solvent to maintain consistency throughout the printing process. It senses a changing environment, responds to it and continuously adjusts its action.

Yet it is automation, not AI. It is a closed-loop feedback-control system operating according to predefined parameters. This distinction is important because sensing, responding and operating autonomously do not, by themselves, make a system AI.

The recent robotic "Olympiad" publicised in China provides an interesting pa...