We all know that in the near future humanity will come to a crossroads. With 99% of the world's population currently tasked with creating memes and/or dank memes, what will happen when computers get better at it than humans? Researchers may have just found out. Using machine learning, a pair of Stanford researchers, Abel L. Peirson V and E. Meltem Tolunay, have created a system that automatically generates memes including the ones visible above. Their system, they've discovered "produces original memes that cannot on the whole be differentiated from real ones."

David Danks thinks a lot about the implications of artificial intelligence. In fact, the Carnegie Mellon University philosophy and psychology professor presented his very first research paper at an artificial intelligence conference in Seattle in 2001. Now, 17 years later, Danks sits at the center of one of the most fascinating (and some might say terrifying debates): How will artificial intelligence effect the human species? Or, put another way, should we be scared of the robotic future? There's certainly enough sci-fi writing -- not to mention press coverage, including a recent piece in The New Yorker with the ominous title Welcoming our New Robot Overlords -- to increase anxiety levels about artificial intelligence. And Danks, an expert in studying the complex dynamics between humans and autonomous systems, is not one to diminish those fears. However, he's optimistic that we can figure things out -- introducing ethics into the AI product development process earlier and requiring more transparency about the values-based decisions that went into creating the technologies. Ethics discussions shouldn't get added to the computer scientists' playbook as a "plug-in at the end, where it's like: 'Yeah, but don't kill people'" Danks notes.

From banks to battlefields, artificial intelligence (AI) is on the rise. But as AI influences more and more key decisions, it also raises complex questions. Will smart machines eliminate workers or help them? Should we worry about AI developing a mind of its own? "We need to look at the technology pieces that are around right now. And how they might interact in ways that we haven't anticipated," said Dr. Colin Allen, a professor of the history and philosophy of science and medicine at Indiana University Bloomington, and co-author of Moral Machines: Teaching Robots Right from Wrong.