The Risk and Reward of Artificial Intelligence

In studying the Three Mile Island nuclear accident, Yale sociologist Charles Perrow concluded that conventional engineering approaches to ensuring safety – building-in more warnings and safeguards – will always fail in the face of increasing system complexity. He called the nuclear accident a "normal accident." Similarly, the Chernobyl accident in 1986, the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003, the 2008 financial crisis and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011 are, in fact, perfectly normal. We just don't know when or how a black swan will show up.