To be fair, back in the late 1980s, few could foresee what a phenomenon it would become.
Except, of course, people like Jeff Bezos, whose Amazon empire shows what a misguided fool I was!
Now the internet rules our lives, for better or for worse.
There can only be a few who don’t at some point indulge in online shopping (never mind the High Street) or ask Google to settle a family argument.
But I am deeply worried about the advances now in AI (Artificial Intelligence).
It’s all happening at such a frightening speed, even by 21st-century standards.
Of course, it has its benefits; the advantages are already plain to see.
Hospitals are using AI to read scans faster and more accurately than any human could.
A local surgeon I spoke to recently said it wasn’t beyond the realms of possibility that one day AI could be handling surgery, just program in patient notes and MRI/CT scans and let the computer do the rest.
Really?
Don’t let me be the first patient!
The negatives are also in clear view.
People’s images, their voices, their faces are being manipulated to the point that you have no idea whether that video of Clinton Rogers is real or not.
With this technology back in the day, I could have taken a month away from BBC Points West, and no one would have noticed.
Seriously, though, what can we believe now?
I have a habit of wasting at least half an hour each morning scrolling through Facebook.
When I come across exciting videos or images, I frequently show my wife, and her first question is: “Yes, but is that real?”
I can’t answer.
And so some genuinely exciting/dramatic/ground-breaking films are now being doubted.
What a shame.
And that’s just the start.
AI is already being used to spread misinformation, manipulate elections (or so we are told), and wage cyber warfare.
So where does that leave us now?
Like electricity and the mobile phone, AI is here to stay.
It will transform our lives in ways that right now we cannot fully imagine (not sure I want to).
The challenge for us all – politicians, scientists, and ordinary folk like you and me – is to harness its benefits while guarding against its obvious dangers.
And if you know how to do that, let me know!