Artificial intelligence and toxicology/ risk assessment: the unknown future

FOREWARD
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has rapidly invaded the scientific arena, in particular, during the last year. Not a day goes by that we hear discussion about the role that this new technology will play in our scientific and regulatory activities. The debate is tight and, for aspects, vibrant; many consider AI as a potential danger for humankind leading to decrease brain skills in a world ruled by machines.

WHAT IS AI?
Artificial intelligence (AI) is defined by Wikipedia as “the intelligence of machines or software, as opposed to the intelligence of living beings, primarily of humans. It is a field of study in computer science that develops and studies intelligent machines. Such machines may be called AIs”
or
“thetheory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages” (Oxford Dictionary)

It’s divided in two sub-definitions:
Weak AI: also known as narrow AI or artificial narrow intelligence (ANI), is AI trained and focused to perform specific tasks. Weak AI drives most of the AI that surrounds us today. “Narrow” might be a more suitable descriptor for this type of AI as it is anything but weak: it enables some very robust applications, such as Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, IBM watsonx™, and self-driving vehicles.
Strong AI: is made up of artificial general intelligence (AGI) and artificial super intelligence (ASI). AGI, or general AI, is a theoretical form of AI where a machine would have an intelligence equal to humans; it would be self-aware with a consciousness that would have the ability to solve problems, learn, and plan for the future. ASI, also known as superintelligence, would surpass the intelligence and ability of the human brain. While strong AI is still entirely theoretical with no practical examples in use today, that doesn’t mean AI researchers aren’t also exploring its development. In the meantime, the best examples of ASI might be from science fiction, such as HAL, the superhuman and rogue computer assistant in 2001: A Space Odyssey.