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The rising interest in and concern about artificial intelligence is being fuelled by advances in computing techniques and an increase in the abundance of information available to AIs. Computers are spectacularly good at well-defined tasks and this seduces people into thinking that technology is overreaching itself( 22 April, p 12 ). Essays, job applications, TV …

Some common questions about AI programs are whether they have attained consciousness or general intelligence. I suggest that these may be the wrong questions. Instead, I ask whether these programs have drive: the drive to survive, grow and reproduce. All biological organisms have drive, even without consciousness or general intelligence. At present, I don't know …

Computer science has been my profession for more than 40 years, so I know the field, including AI, relatively well. Concerns about bias and a Terminator-style extinction event seem largely to be red herrings. The true threat that AI poses is the destruction of jobs. AI doesn't need general intelligence to do your job better …

The discussion of the latest advances in AI brings to mind the 1954 short story Answer by Fredric Brown, in which a computer is asked if there is a god. It answers by saying "now there is" and permanently fuses its switch into the on position.

To avoid AI pitfalls, we need regulators to limit access to this new technology to those who are trained and appointed to use it.

Thank you for Graham Lawton's very interesting article on restoring rivers to their natural states. As a child, I would regularly visit my grandparents who lived in an industrialised area of Germany, where I would walk past the canalised stream running through their suburb. It was bland, with concrete sides, and just served the purpose …

In addition to the points raised by Sandrine Ceurstemont in her review of a podcast about heading off ageing, dramatically extending our lifetimes increases how long our financial resources must last and raises many more dilemmas( 29 April, p 36 ). Will remaining physically young translate to our mental state? Will people be expected to …

It is no mystery why children's reading skills are diminishing – they have their noses in iPads and iPhones 24/7( 22 April, p 42 ).

Can conspiracy theories be stopped? Yes, by implanting chips in the promulgators that prevent them making promulgations( 15 April, p 12 ).

Jonathan R. Goodman's article lamenting a stay-at-home culture, or "goblin mode", that arose due to the pandemic is typical of what I call the extrovert's narrative. It reads like an almost evangelical piece on how we have all been corrupted by lockdowns and need to rediscover the social norms of old in order to save …