Alphabet's DeepMind sets up 'ethics and society' unit to research real-world impact of AI

Will artificial intelligence (AI) ring the death knell for humanity, or will it improve our lives immeasurably? It depends who you ask. Tech luminary Elon Musk, for example, believes AI is the biggest threat we face as a civilization, while Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg thinks such viewpoints are irresponsible, at best. The bottom line is, we don't really know how AI will evolve. But we do know that a lot of money is being invested in developing AI technologies, and we are also aware that many people in the know expect that machines will surpass human intellect and abilities at some point in the foreseeable future. It's against this backdrop that Alphabet's U.K.-based AI subsidiary DeepMind has launched a new "ethics and society" research unit tasked with "exploring and understanding" the implications of AI permeating the world.