The Vice Chancellor, Registrar, Bursar, members of the University Council, the Chairman, Committee of Deans, Deans of Faculties, members of the senate, officers of the university, professors, lecturers, the graduands that we are honouring today, their parents, friends and families and most importantly, the students of this great pioneering university.
This is the imbalance that all of you as graduates of a university with an eye to the future and with the knowledge acquired in this institution as well as your fresh energy and vision will be called upon to redress. This is why it is important to rub minds with this distinguished audience on the subject matter of this afternoon. This being a festive rather than an academic occasion, I intend to be brief and to the point.
The unburdening of the beast led to a revolution in agriculture, transportation and warfare.
There was also the case of the young English sixteenth century immigrant to America who copied by heart the entire new procedure for corn milling which he then painstakingly copied down on reaching his new country. He became rich and prosperous in his new home beyond his wildest dream and expectations. The world belongs to the brave and daring.
It is a profound testimony to the power of human imagination that advances in sciences and technological breakthrough always appear like fantastical constructs or imaginative conceits to their precursor societies. Long before the arrival of the real thing, the science fiction of writers such as Isaac Asimov and H.G Wells brimmed with outlandish space crafts, shuttle ships and all kinds of robotic monstrosities.
What then is Artificial Intelligence or AI as it has come to be known in scientific circuits? As the name implies, Artificial Intelligence is non-human or machine intelligence. It is the equivalent of breathing life and intelligence into machines in a way that makes them capable of obeying instructions or undertaking independent missions requiring human intelligence .