This chilling conclusion about the fate of artificial intelligence seems to put an end to the idea that we can automate innovation. Since this book was first published in 1972, not much has changed, and the field of artificial intelligence seems to be in decline. For a machine to innovate, it would need to: 1. Take a product or service and break it into its component parts 2. Take a product or service and identify its attributes (color, weight, etc) 3. Apply a template of innovation to manipulate the product or service and change it into some abstract form 4. Take the abstract form and find a way for humans to benefit from it I like the odds of a machine being able to do the first two steps. Imagine a computer that had the ability to “Google” a product or service to create a component list. Try it yourself. Search Google for “components of a garage door.” You should be able to find several websites from which a component and attribute list could be developed. There are other resources available to machines to derive lists such as patent filings, engineering specifications, instruction manuals, etc.