Programming languages were used even before computers were invented. For example, player piano scrolling, that long roll of coded paper tape, is considered an early form of programming because it contained the instructions needed to make the piano play a tune.
The first computers were programmed by switching switches and reconfiguring equipment. As a result, the early programmers had to be intimately familiar with computer hardware. But we’ve come a long way, and high-level programming languages require little or no familiarity with basic hardware.
Up until recently, corporate directors could bring laptops or tablets to board meetings (or, with larger firms, have assistants with these devices sitting behind them) to use as research tools if the need arose. The key word here is “tools”-the devices were used to gather information so that the director could speak intelligently or vote on a particular topic-the computer system could even make a recommendation for action to be taken, but the technology has always been subservient to the director, who can ignore the data gathered or the recommendations of so-called “artificial intelligence.”
AI as decision makers
Well, the game has just changed! As Rob Wile wrote in Business Insider in 2014 in an article titled “Venture Capital Firm Just Named Algorithm to Its Board of Directors – Here’s What It Really Does,” the computer analysis system was named an equal, not a tool, to the Board of Directors. Wile writes, “Deep Knowledge Ventures, a firm that works on drug projects for age-related diseases and regenerative medicine, says a program called VITAL can make investment recommendations for life sciences companies by analyzing large amounts of data…. How Does the Algorithm Work? VITAL makes its decisions by scanning future company funding, clinical trials, intellectual property and previous funding rounds.” The real trump card in this story is that VITAL is a voting member of the Board with as much weight as any other member.