“Hot enough for you?” Probably not, given the season. Or maybe the mercury has climbed since I wrote this column. Who’s to say? Certainly not Google Overview or any other AI tool doing its robotic best to grasp our inner temperature, sifting what humans mean behind the words we say.

English is never easy. Ask Felipe, my Chilean barista, who fills the café with his bossa nova covers before his boss arrives. One day, an Ipanema travesty of Radiohead’s Creep mugging my senses, Felipe asked, “You like this song?” I gave a brave smile: “Yeah right”. Meaning no, though all Felipe heard was a double positive, so he turned it up.

AI struggles to fully grasp our inner temperature.Credit: Getty

With that mix-up in mind, imagine a chatbot’s chances of grappling with idiom, puns, nuance, vernacular. Words on the surface will often disguise their meaning beneath. If a robot heard about a pop-up taco truck charging like a wounded bull, it would likely run........

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