In a spectacle that either confirms our impending doom or merely assures us our future AI overlords will at least possess a rather fetching sense of rhythm, science communicator and poker champion Liv Boeree recently threw down the gauntlet – or perhaps, the disco ball – against a rather nimble robot. The mechanical marvel, widely believed to be Titan the Robot from Cyberstein Robots, didn’t just win; it absolutely sashayed its way to victory, leaving humanity’s representative, despite her considerable intellect and card-playing prowess, looking a tad out of step. This, naturally, sends shivers down the spine of anyone contemplating our post-human future. If they can out-boogie us, what hope do we have? Our best bet, it seems, for staving off total robotic domination, isn’t to challenge them to a philosophical debate or a chess match. No, our last desperate stand might well involve a task at which they consistently, gloriously fail: trying to pick out all the crosswalks in a particularly grainy CAPTCHA.
