A popular branch of technology at the moment is AI, though the name is only half right. It's certainly artificial, but there's not much that's intelligent about it. Automated pattern recognition is a more accurate term because AI systems are getting very good at recognising patterns, but they can't do much else.

Still, pattern recognition is useful. For example, you can drive cars with it. Uber, Tesla and Google are dead keen on building a self-driving future in which our roads will be safer and pleasantly free of congestion. We'll also have more time to look at our devices.