Ever since deep learning burst into the mainstream in 2012, the hype around AI research has often outpaced its reality. However, during the past year, a series of breakthroughs and major milestones suggest the technology may finally be living up to its promise.

Despite the obvious potential of deep learning, for the past decade regular warnings about the dangers of runaway superintelligence and the prospect of technological unemployment were tempered by the fact that most AI systems were preoccupied with identifying images of cats or providing questionable translations from English to Chinese.

 …