This month (31 March) marks 20 years since ‘The Matrix’ hit cinemas in the US (11th June in the UK), revolutionising the way we view the power of machines and our relationship with technology. Kevin Joyner, director of planning and insight, Croud, explores the progression of Artificial Intelligence and how much it’s moved on in the past 20 years.
When we’re asked to think of a world dominated by Artificial Intelligence, we probably imagine ourselves living inside The Matrix: wired up to liquid-filled pods and allowing machines to determine and operate every aspect of our lives. In the film – one of my favourites, 20 years old this year – we’ve lost a battle with machines, scorched the earth in an attempt to defend it, and become slaves – anesthetised by a simulated world. Scary, right?
With AI now embedded into much of how we live and what we do – whether healthcare, banking, online shopping and now our trusty voice assistants – we might easily imagine we’re not far from that world already, and that life as we know it is never going to be the same again....