Artificial Intelligence and the art of winning in this brave new world

When my brilliant friend and batchmate at IIT, Delhi (CGPA of 10 points and gold medallist) declared that he would be pursuing a Master’s degree, leading to a PhD, in Artificial Intelligence in the USA, I was intrigued. Also curious. This was 1982. He sat me down and patiently explained the significance of the force that the two words when conjoined, could generate in the next few decades.

When we had joined the IIT in 1977, log tables and slide rules were just giving way to the simple calculator and later the scientific calculator, for use in examinations. There was not much controversy as this seemed a logical progression. The question did come up however, whether schools should permit calculators.