Not that I’m a Luddite, though technology and myself are not on more than nodding terms.

Yet the advent and onward march of so-called Artificial Intelligence (AI) makes me a mite nervous.

Like most innovations, there are obvious pros and cons. The latter now include half of all university students accessing a site which writes their essays for them. And though its extensively in use, it’s not easy to spot and disqualify.

Then there’s the nagging thought that so smart are these bots, it can only be a matter of time before they are implanted with the ability to feel emotions and think like humans.

On the plus side, AI has also been used in medicine and medical advances. Apparently it can shave weeks and months off the time it take to make diagnoses from patient samples.

Doubtless it will also prove equally efficient in many other fields as it gets more widely adopted.

And yet, and yet.

You will remember the great old fuss over genetically modified crops, and how it was alleged that, properly utilised, GM could be used to solve many of the world’s famine problems.

Thing is, “properly utilised” is doing an awful lot of heavy lifting. When Dolly the sheep was born, cloning was also heralded as one giant leap for humankind.

Cue assorted rogue scientists who went on to claim that they could shortly clone humans too. And a number are already making a tidy sum claiming to be able to clone favourite pets.

Having said which, artificial insemination has made many infertile couples deliriously happy.

The common factor throughout is not dodgy science, but unscrupulous humans. Maybe we need to invent a way of screening THEM out.

In the meantime, as with all novelties, I believe we should treat AI both with proper respect and necessary caution.