AI has huge potential – but it won't solve all our problems

Hysteria about the future of artificial intelligence (AI) is everywhere. There is no shortage of sensationalist news about how AI can cure diseases, accelerate human innovation and improve human creativity. From the headlines alone, you would think we already live in a future where AI has infiltrated every aspect of society. While AI has opened up a wealth of promising opportunities, it has also led to a mindset that can be best described as "AI solutionism". This is the attitude that, given enough data, machine learning algorithms can solve all of humanity's problems.