Britain is sleepwalking into an new era of upheaval more important than climate change or Brexit, Herefordshire Conservative Business Forum was warned.

The grave advice came from John Handby when he spoke at the forum’s breakfast recently at the Harewood End Inn.

John is a Chartered Fellow of the British Computer Society, Liveryman of the City of London and the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists. He told how Artificial Intelligence (AI) could be used in any situation that could be reduced to a mathematical equation or algorithm. Driverless cars and trucks would continue to develop and AI would result in machines that could think, reason, learn and improve – much like a human. The machine would learn on the job and become central. We, the human, would become more peripheral.

He talked about the changing world of “social media and information gathering”, where ever-more data would be collected as machines talked and instructed each other.

Further intrusion and information gathering would occur when machines started undertaking activities within the home. AI and robotics would affect us all and this needed to be publicised.

He asked: “Is this a force for good or evil? Man could become controlled by machines more intelligent than we are.”

He highlighted the opportunities for hacking and the vulnerability to which individuals and companies were exposing themselves. “Even Artificial Intelligence used at a domestic level could be hacked for personal information,” he said.

He emphasised the need for regulations and action, as a society, nationally and internationally: “We and politicians need to recognise the threat and to strengthen our defences. We have been naïve and we need to get tougher. GCHQ is now beginning to recognise the threat and is beefing up defences."

William Lyons thanked John and said: “This is a step change, as great as the Industrial Revolution was to the whole world”.

Anthea McIntyre, Conservative MEP said: “John gave an excellent talk and the topic was very thought provoking. Amongst other things, he challenged us to be more concerned about Artificial Intelligence than about climate change or immigration”.