The Hidden Risk of Letting A.I. Decide

As artificial intelligence creeps further into people’s daily lives, so do worries about it. 

At the most alarmist are concerns about AI going rogue and terminating its human masters. But behind the calls for a pause on the development of AI is a suite of more tangible social ills. Among them are the risks AI poses to people’s privacy and dignity and the inevitable fact that, because the algorithms under AI’s hood are programmed by humans, it is just as biased and discriminatory as many of us. Throw in the lack of transparency about how AI is designed, and by whom, and it’s easy to understand why so much time these days is devoted to debating its risks as much as its potential.

But my own research leads me to believe that all these risks are overshadowed by an even more corrupting, though largely invisible, threat. That is, AI is mere keystrokes away from making people even less disciplined and skilled when it comes to thoughtful decisions.

Read the entire article here.  And watch my take on A.I. after hearing (and hearing and hearing) about it at the World Economic Forum: