Chris Dixon, who invested early in companies ranging from Warby Parker to Kickstarter, once wrote that the next big thing always starts out looking like a toy. That's certainly true of artificial intelligence, which started out playing games like chess, go and playing humans on the game show Jeopardy! Yet today, AI has become so pervasive we often don't even recognize it anymore. Besides enabling us to speak to our phones and get answers back, intelligent algorithms are often working in the background, providing things like predictive maintenance for machinery and automating basic software tasks. As the technology becomes more powerful, it's also forcing us to ask some uncomfortable questions that were once more in the realm of science fiction or late-night dorm room discussions.

Chris Dixon, who invested early in companies ranging from Warby Parker to Kickstarter, once wrote that the next big thing always starts out looking like a toy. That's certainly true of artificial intelligence, which started out playing games like chess, go and playing humans on the game show Jeopardy! Yet today, AI has become so pervasive we often don't even recognize it anymore. Besides enabling us to speak to our phones and get answers back, intelligent algorithms are often working in the background, providing things like predictive maintenance for machinery and automating basic software tasks. As the technology becomes more powerful, it's also forcing us to ask some uncomfortable questions that were once more in the realm of science fiction or late-night dorm room discussions.

Chris Dixon, who invested early in companies ranging from Warby Parker to Kickstarter, once wrote that the next big thing always starts out looking like a toy. That's certainly true of artificial intelligence, which started out playing games like chess, go and playing humans on the game show Jeopardy! Yet today, AI has become so pervasive we often don't even recognize it anymore. Besides enabling us to speak to our phones and get answers back, intelligent algorithms are often working in the background, providing things like predictive maintenance for machinery and automating basic software tasks. As the technology becomes more powerful, it's also forcing us to ask some uncomfortable questions that were once more in the realm of science fiction or late-night dorm room discussions.

The RacerAI drone was designed to perceive the world with sensors, cameras and machine learning. Because of the customized level of design, it has inherent advantages over humans. For example, people must look to the left or to the right in order to see different fields of vision within a full 180-degree view, whereas the RacerAI's hemispherical cameras see the entire scope. "With robotics, we're doing the same thing right now that took humans hundreds of thousands of years to evolve: how big should its brain be, how fast should its body move, where should its set of eyes be?" says DRL chief technology officer Ryan Gury. "We created a huge set of tools so participants can compete and push the needle forward to create something that can defeat a human."

I was about to plug my new Google Home Mini into the wall outlet this weekend when I froze. What kind of a commitment was I about to make? Google had handed out freebies of its puck-sized, fabric-coated gizmo at a press event last week. It seemed like a good, low-risk opportunity to dip my toes in the home voice-assistant waters. Scott Rosenberg is an editor at Backchannel.