In the grand scheme of things, 45 years is not a long time. Back in 1980, it would take me three weeks to run a computer program, written in the programming language Cobol, that worked using punched cards. Each card represented one line of code and it required multiple re-punches to correct errors. Eventually, I would have a working program that did something useful.
How times have quickly changed in technology – now, my mobile phone has vast processing capability compared to the machine that processed that Cobol program. With the help of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, that same phone is able to instantly translate between languages on a live call, among many other features.
