Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies--and the data driven business models underpinning them--are disrupting how we live, interact, work, do business, and govern. The economic, social and environmental benefits could be significant, for example in the realms of medical research, urban design, fair employment practices, political participation, public service delivery. But evidence is mounting about the potential negative consequences for society and individuals. These include the erosion of privacy, online hate speech, and the distortion of political engagement. They also include amplifying socially embedded discrimination where algorithms based on bias training data are used in criminal sentencing or job advertising and recruitment.

Earlier this year, Alibaba CEO Jack Ma made headlines for proclaiming the imminent arrival of the robot CEO. He told an audience at a conference in China that we are only decades away from having robots run our companies. He backed that claim up shortly after via a television interview with CNN, predicting that, in 30 years, a robot would grace the cover of Time Magazine. As implausible as that scenario might seem to some, he's not isolated in his thinking. Earlier this year, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son spoke at Mobile World Conference 2017 about the concept of'singularity' – the point at which machine intelligence will surpass our own and start improving itself at an exponential rate – which he predicts will happen as soon as 2047.