We need to talk about AI

They are coming for our jobs, and worse, they're coming to get us. We are besieged by ever more dire warnings about artificial intelligence from increasingly loud voices. Elon Musk repeatedly warns that AI is a fundamental risk to the existence of human civilisation and we should beware the robots going down the street killing people. One frequently cited analysis by Oxford economists suggests that 47 per cent of workers in the US have jobs at high risk of automation over the next two decades. CSIRO has predicted a similar proportion in Australia.