Microsoft's Brad Smith cites Boeing crisis as cautionary tale for intelligent machines, calls for AI kill switch

For decades, sci-fi movies have predicted a future in which humans lose control of intelligent machines and chaos ensues. Those apocalyptic portrayals of artificial intelligence may seem like a distant or unrealistic future. But the seeds of a reality in which we lose control of the machines we build are being sown today. "What is the biggest software-related issue to impact the economy in Puget Sound in 2019?" "Software in the cockpit of an airplane, software that the pilots couldn't turn off," Smith said. Smith was referring to the multi-billion dollar fallout from Boeing's faulty 737 Max software that resulted in two crashes killing 346 people. Boeing's manufacturing center is based in Renton, Wash.