Hello and welcome. You are listening to Patrick Boyle on Finance, a podcast exploring ideas from quantitative finance, examining events occurring in markets right now and financial history to see what lessons can be taken away, including interviews with some of the most interesting people in the world of finance. To learn more about the podcast, visit onfinance.org.

Not long ago, an article appeared in the New York Times about artificial intelligence

and the research that was being done at Cornell University. The headline read, Electronic Brain teaches

itself, and the article went on to describe how the Navy who funded the research had just

demonstrated the embryo of an electronic computer named the Perceptron, which was due to be completed

in about a year. It was expected to be the first non-living

mechanism able to perceive, recognise and identify its surroundings without human training

or control. The article said that it's expected to walk, talk, see, write, reproduce itself and be conscious of its existence.

Not only that, but it's expected to be finished in about a year at a cost of a hundred thousand

dollars.

Now many of you are possibly impressed that something that amazing could be developed at

a cost of a mere $100,000.

But you must understand that $100,000 was a lot of money in 1958 when the article was written.

Don't accuse me of misleading you by saying not long ago either.

I'm about to bring up the ancient Egyptians in a few minutes, and on that time scale, 65 years

ago is not long ago at all.

The article went on to describe how, in principle, it was now possible in 1958 to build

brains that can reproduce themselves on assembly lines, which would be conscious of their own existence.

The people at the New York Times were possibly a bit optimistic.

But anyhow, I guess what I'm trying to tell you is that sometimes the press can get

a bit carried away when new technology appears.

There's no record as to whether Kathy Wood

...