ABSTRACT
Software systems that can improvise and adapt to new environments or generalise and apply knowledge to different scenarios. Examples include systems that can understand human speech and act as virtual assistants, compete with humans in complex games such as chess or Go, operate machinery autonomously, translate between human languages, or handle financial investments. Blockchain and AI are merely the latest iterations, as is the ‘Internet of Things’, where household appliances, roads, cars and cities are enabled by digital technology to become ‘smart’. Use of the properties of quantum physics to store data and perform computations. Rather than using binary bits, quantum computers employ quantum bits (qubits) using physical systems such as the spin of an electron or the orientation of a photon. A network of internet servers dedicated to the storage, management and processing of data as a single digital ecosystem, rather than by local servers or personal computers.
