World Economic Forum Wants to Help Companies Avoid the Pitfalls of Artificial Intelligence

The World Economic Forum, best known for its glitzy annual conference in Davos, Switzerland, wants to help companies avoid the potential pitfalls that come with deploying artificial intelligence. Yes, A.I. promises to radically change how businesses operate by opening the door to innovations like driverless vehicles and robots that care for the elderly. But it could also exacerbate inequalities in society and lead to widespread job loss. The WEF's solution: A set of guidelines for corporate boards that spells out how companies can use A.I. responsibly. "We found a lot of boards didn't really understand A.I., and they were asked to make decisions about implementing A.I. in companies without any tools to do so," Kay Firth-Butterfield, the WEF's machine learning chief, told Fortune.