Artificial intelligence, it seems, can figure out how to do just about anything. It can simulate the Universe, learn to solve a Rubik's Cube with just one hand, and even find ghosts hidden in our past. All these kinds of advancements are meant to be for our own good. In recent times, algorithmic systems that already affect people's lives have demonstrated alarming levels of bias in their operation, doing things like predicting criminality along racial lines and determining credit limits based on gender. Against this backdrop, how can scientists ensure that advanced thinking systems can be fair, or even safe?

In the Culture novels by Iain M. Banks, futuristic post-humans install devices on their brains called a "neural lace." A mesh that grows with your brain, it's essentially a wireless brain-computer interface. But it's also a way to program your neurons to release certain chemicals with a thought. A group of chemists and engineers who work with nanotechnology published a paper this month in Nature Nanotechnology about an ultra-fine mesh that can merge into the brain to create what appears to be a seamless interface between machine and biological circuitry. Called "mesh electronics," the device is so thin and supple that it can be injected with a needle -- they've already tested it on mice, who survived the implantation and are thriving.