Opinion Matt Miller: Artificial intelligence, our final invention?

Even when our debates seem petty, you can't say national politics doesn't deal with weighty matters, from jobs to inequality to affordable health care and more. But lately I've become obsessed with an issue so daunting it makes even the biggest "normal" questions of public life seem tiny. I'm talking about the risks posed by "runaway" artificial intelligence (AI). What happens when we share the planet with self-aware, self-improving machines that evolve beyond our ability to control or understand? Are we creating machines that are destined to destroy us?