AI explained: Everything you need to know about our robot overlords

This is what many people fear when they think about artificial intelligence. But AI technology is often misunderstood, and the many benefits of machine intelligence are easy to overlook. The dystopian vision of AI as an omniscient superintelligence is nothing like the technology we see and use today. Contemporary AI is actually a cluster of related technologies--machine learning, supervised learning, and computer vision, for example--that allow companies to automate tasks at large scale. "There are a lot of real risks to AI," said CNET senior editor Stephen Shankland, like "job displacement, more advanced weapons, and new ways for humans to be bad to other humans."