The Real Risks of Smarter Machines

When people ask me what I'm working on, I'm often confused about the depth I need to go to in my response. 'Artificial Intelligence' is way too broad for my personal satisfaction, and image understanding probably too specific. Nevertheless, every single time, I do get this completely unrelated follow-up question that infuriates me to my core. And I can't even blame the skeptic -- most people think artificial intelligence is some unknown, mysterious entity which is conspiring infinitesimally, and will eventually kill us all, since it can predict that Sausage Party is the next movie we'd want to watch after we've binge-watched Evan Goldberg flicks all night. That's what makes predicting your favourite music, or suggesting the correct phone app to use while you're taking a dump -- an easy task for machines.