Time to stop panicking about artificial intelligence

Ryan Hagemann for the Niskanen Center: The fears over artificial intelligence, while at a very early stage, are an expected feature of the "techno-panics" associated with emerging technologies. As described in a paper from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation's Daniel Castro and Alan McQuinn, these panics are part of a broader privacy panic cycle ... The cycle is composed of four stages: trusted beginnings, rising panic, deflating fears and moving on. So where are we with fears over AI? Based on the cross-ideological concerns, Mercatus senior research fellow Adam Thierer noted ... that we're still in the "rising panic" stage of the current AI hysteria. Unfortunately, we haven't yet reached peak hysteria. That boiling-over point, however, is probably coming sooner than a lot of people expect -- legislators, regulators, researchers and those techno-optimists who tout this technology's benefits should be prepared.