Artificial intelligence requires regulation. Now.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning have made modern life infinitely easier, quicker and more connected. But the limits of "smart machines" also are on display every day--self-driving cars that crash and catch fire, facial recognition and law enforcement software that are biased against minorities and those with darker skin, and algorithms that eliminate swaths of the population from home loan and credit card qualification. It's clear artificial intelligence needs reasonable boundaries, mathematician and computer scientist Moshe Vardi told those gathered for a virtual symposium, "AI & Society," Sept. 21 and 22. The problem will be reaching agreement on the methods of regulation and implementing them over time, said Vardi, who heads Rice University's Initiative on Technology, Culture and Society. The answer is, right now, that society has given up.