This blog is for everyone who uses words.

The ordinary-sized words are for everyone, but the big ones are especially for children.



Thursday, 12 April 2018

The wrong sort of race: a rant.

The scholarly Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, discussing the increasing economic importance of artificial intelligence, says:

It [Chinese policy] calls for the output of 100,000 robots annually within three years, with the open intent of leapfrogging the US in a robotic arms race.

Far be it from me to criticise China's economic ambitions, but surely, if someone was trying to leapfrog something, wouldn't it be much more effective to do it in a robotic legs race?

Just asking.

File:Leapfrog 1932.jpg
Girls playing leapfrog in France, 1932

Word To Use Today: leapfrog. Leap comes from the Old English hlēapan; frog comes from the Old English frogga.

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard writes for The Telegraph newspaper.

No comments:

Post a Comment

All comments are very welcome, but please make them suitable for The Word Den's family audience.