THE Bishop of Oxford is to consider the impact of major technology advances as he joins the Government’s Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence.

AI is a rapidly developing field of scientific research where machines are being devised to develop some of the qualities of the human mind.

The Rt Rev Dr Steven Croft said now was the right time to join the select committee.

He said: "Artificial intelligence is going to change all of our lives - lots of us interact with Siri and Alexa."

Siri is the voice-control system on iPhones and iPads while Alexa is a voice-controlled Bluetooth speaker that, as well as streaming music, can be used to create shopping lists, check the weather, surf the web and even order takeaways.

The Bishop, who lives in Kidlington, added: "Our data is made available to multi-national companies and sometimes we are not aware that is happening.

"There are privacy issues, but probably the biggest impact is to be the future of work - it will affect all of us and our children and grandchildren."

The Select Committee has been appointed to consider the economic, ethical and social implications of advances in artificial intelligence.

Rt Rev Croft has been invited to join as he one of the Lords Spiritual – 26 bishops who serve in the House of Lords.

He is one of a handful of the Lords Spiritual who have been invited to serve on select committees.

Currently the only other one is the Bishop of Chelmsford, the Rt Rev Stephen Cottrell, previously the Bishop of Reading, who is on the Communications Select Committee.

Rt Rev Croft has also been invited to a conference exploring how science can be a resource in the professional work of religious leaders and theological educators this month at Oxford University.

He has visited Oxford Brookes University Department of Computing and Communication Technologies to take a close look at research leading to technological advances.

There he met Artie, a ‘robothespian’ that can interact with humans, sing and act out scenes from films.

And he witnessed the development of projects to help medical and military professionals do their jobs more safely and efficiently.

The Bishop has also been invited to the Oxford Robotics Institute, part of Oxford University, which is developing pioneering technologies and robotic systems, including driverless cars and robots that can guide people, robots for transportation services, and even long-range planetary exploration.

Science fiction author Brian Aldiss, who lived in Headington, died last weekend, aged 92.

His futuristic short story, Supertoys Last All Summer Long, first published in 1969, inspired the 2001 Steven Spielberg movie AI: Artificial Intelligence, starring Haley Joel Osment as a robotic boy.