Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google sign in become a supporter subscribe search find a job dating more from the guardian: change edition: edition International edition The Guardian - Back to home browse all sections close Artificial intelligence (AI) 2016: the year AI came of age Google and Amazon brought AI into the home and DeepMind built a computer that could outsmart humans at Go.
 Will 2017 hold similar advancements?
 The world’s top human Go player Lee Sedol reacts before the fourth match of the Google DeepMind Challenge Match against Google’s artificial intelligence program AlphaGo in Seoul, South Korea.
 Out of five matches, Lee lost 4-1.
 of the Google DeepMind Challenge Match against Google’s artificial intelligence program AlphaGo in Seoul, South Korea.
 Out of five matches, Lee lost 4-1.
 Photograph: Reuters Artificial intelligence (AI) 2016: the year AI came of age Google and Amazon brought AI into the home and DeepMind built a computer that could outsmart humans at Go.
 Will 2017 hold similar advancements?
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00 GMT Last modified on Sun 16 Jul ‘17 21.
45 BST Over the course of 2016, artificial intelligence made the leap from “science fiction concept” to “almost meaningless buzzword” with alarmingspeed.
 Everything has AI now.
 Period-tracking app Flo “uses a neural network approach” to deliver “high period forecast accuracy”; food delivery app Just Eat launched a chatbot that “sees AI integrated into the ordering experience to ensure that customers receive the best, round the clock support and service”; restaurant guide Borsch “uses artificial intelligence to help people discover the yummiest dishes around”.
 But unlike many buzzwords before it, from “big data” to “blockchain”, artificial intelligence’s transformation into venture capitalist-catnip doesn’t signify the end of anyone serious using the term themselves.
 In fact, 2017 looks like it could be the most important year yet for the technology: AI will butt up against not only what is possible, but also what is desirable for the first time.
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 That was when Apple’s Siri hit iPhones, introducing the world to the first major “virtual assistant”.
 It was also the year the Google Brain project was instituted: the search engine’s blue-sky research team aimed to address as many tasks as possible through neural network-based learning, the computational technique that has come to define what we mean by artificial intelligence.
 DeepMind's AlphaGo beating South Korean professional Go player Lee Sedol.