Back in 1965, future Intel cofounder Gordon Moore – then the Director of Research and Development at Fairchild Semiconductor – formed his theory that computational power doubles every year (which he revised a decade later to every two years). That theory, which became known as Moore’s Law, held true for almost half a century. But now, the rise of AI-powered computing has thrown that accepted theory into question. 

As computer scientists from the UK’s University of Aberdeen have shown, AI-powered computing now doubles in power roughly every six months. And while those scientists chart the ever-growing computational power of AI, consumers are taking notice of how this technology promises to upend the world as they know it.