What are the chances that humans will be witness to evolution of a new species?

100%
Because it already happened. Many times.
It has been observed. Many times.
See here

We have observed it already, many times. When a new species shows up via evolution it is called speciation. There are many examples of this, from the microscopic to the macroscopic. There are microscopic examples such as new viruses, and macroscopic examples in creatures such as mice and certain reptiles.

As for the idea of witnessing say a dinosaur turn in to a bird with your own eyes, you should maybe watch this very interesting video called “65 million years with a creationist”.

There is no definitive answer for creationists because their beliefs are based on faith not on logic.

Does Artificial Intelligence count?

That’s a tough one. How are we to know whether a new species has recently evolved or if it was hitherto undiscovered? If there is a way, I don’t know about it, so please share your knowledge.

p=1. We are witnesses to the evolutionary process all the time – it is just generally too slow for us to notice it. A bit like the curvature of the Earth being too gradual for it to be readily obvious. The problem is that new species are only evident over long periods of time, since any short term changes are just deviations from the previous copy of an existing species.

@Seelix , I thought about that. I suppose that the evolution would have to take place in a fairly civilized area. Then it would be possible to see the transition from subspecies to species.

With our mastery of genetic engineering the day of the Island of Dr, Moreau is upon us.

Well, granted we had a major hand in their development, but look no further than all our dog breeds, from the mighty Great Dane and Saint Bernard to the miniature chihuahua. Before man began to selectively breed them, they were all wolves.

I was going to give you the answer that @Lightlyseared gave, and point to what @ragingloli & @poisonedantidote said as proof of concept; but they beat me to it. However, for the future, unless man learns to be a better steward of nature, things do not look so good. See this: Humans driving extinction faster than species can evolve, say experts.

I’s happening as we speak!

Malaria mosquitoes

Lizards

New Guinea flycatchers

Blackcaps

I could go on and on- evolution is occurring all the time, all around us.

@Seelix

“How are we to know whether a new species has recently evolved or if it was hitherto undiscovered?”

There are many molecular clocks that can tell us when species diverged.

Thanks for all the examples. I wonder what the reaction of creationists would be. I have the feeling that they would say that the differences between the species are too small to be worthy of consideration. I have the feeling that the only that might convince them would be a very dramatic change.

@ETpro , that is disheartening news that extinction is outpacing evolution.

@LostInParadise

“I wonder what the reaction of creationists would be.”

You don’t have to wonder, you are exactly right. No matter of facts will convince them.

Also, creationists (at least the ones you hear about) do not care about speciation. What they want to see is something ludicrous, like a dog giving birth to a human, or some chimera between a duck and a crocodile.
They want to see as proof for evolution, what, if it actually existed/happened, would disprove evolution.
It is like asking for a cubic moon to prove that the moon is a sphere.

Absolutely, it has already happened. J. Craig Venter, the scientist who decoded the human genome, and his colleagues have created the first synthetic, self replicating bacteria cell. He was on 60 Minutes last week. You can read about it here

@LostInParadise Indeed it is sad that human activity is driving so much extinction. But there is a ray of hope. Check out the link that @crisw posted. @crisw Neat links.

@crisw – Great list.

Do you know by any chance when scientists talk about bacteria speciation?

Are multi-drug resistant bacteria considered a new species compared to their non-resistant “ancestors” ?

@mattbrowne

Not as far as I know.