Who are our Caretakers of A.I.?

The oncoming storm of Artificial Intelligence as popularized by sci-fi films and to some extent over-inflated expectations of machines that can learn to mimic humans has created an early worry of its impact on jobs, society and us in general. The announcement of a UK commission to look at ethical, legal and societal impact needs to be unpacked in terms of what the state of current A.I. is today and what is causing this early alarm bell to be taken seriously. Why are we raging against the machine? This is perhaps in two areas, the level of sensors and data collection is now rapidly increasing from mobile phones, security cameras to devices in the home like Amazon Echo and Google Home starting to record huge amounts of data about our behavior and choices. On one level this is a concern for privacy and identity that machine algorithms are in use already that analyze this sea of data and can start to manipulate and influence our outcomes and expectations. This is part of the source of the commission focus.