278 The AI Debate

Ever since the Hope stopped in space, the research on AI started in earnest, and at the same time, the debate on whether to research AI also started on the Hope.

AI was no longer a simple program. It had, at the very basics, the ability to learn. Even though it had no sentience or creativity, with the ability to learn, it was already the best AI mankind could envision. For example, the assembly line on the Hope was already completely automated, but the maintenance still required manual intervention. The harvesting of raw materials and even transportation required a large amount of human labour as well. Therefore, with the introduction of AI, human productivity would increase many fold!

That was the real point of the 4th industrial revolution!