India, Feb. 19 -- Many epoch-defining revolutions in the past have unfolded without announcing themselves, and without people assessing their potential impact on everything from work to environment to humanity itself. Be it the industrial revolution or in more recent times, the IT and digital revolutions, the paradigm of how things are done changed before people took notice of the medium- and long-term impacts. But perhaps because it is breaking in the 21st century, the Artificial Intelligence (AI) wave has evoked a more considered response from scientists, philosophers, businesses, and governments.

To be sure, it is still difficult to map out the exact promise of the technology, but its best possibilities call for accelerated and inclus...