Machine learning, a process in which artificial intelligence teaches itself to perform complex tasks, has boundless applications. But the risks are alarming. AI, for instance, could discriminate against hiring black people based on past trends when discrimination against them was rife. So, in order to avoid such undesirable behaviour, a team of computer scientists at Stanford University has developed a framework dubbed "Seldonian algorithms" after a character in the science-fiction novels of Isaac Asimov. Seldonian algorithms can easily be tweaked by end users--who may not be coding wizards--to pre-empt potential foul-ups.