King County, Wash., banned the use of facial recognition by county agencies like law enforcement, following cities such as San Francisco. In most of the U.S., activists are finding bans a tough sell.

The threat of Artificial Intelligence (AI) used to be nothing more than a science fiction doomsday scenario. Today, an AI threat is a very real possibility, and could be more disastrous than nuclear weapons or World War Three. Over the years, AI has been advancing at an alarming rate. In fact, it is precisely AI's exponential rate of improvement that makes it so dangerous. Should we decide to follow through with making AI sentient and giving it free will, it could, as many science fiction narratives have suggested, see humans as a problem and decide to do something about it.