Artificial intelligence has become a crucial part of our technological infrastructure and the brain underlying many consumer devices. In less than a decade, machine learning algorithms based on deep neural networks evolved from recognizing cats in videos to enabling your smartphone to perform real-time translation between 27 different languages. This progress has sparked the use of AI in drug discovery and development. Artificial intelligence can improve efficiency and outcomes in drug development across therapeutic areas. For example, companies are developing AI technologies that hold the promise of preventing serious adverse events in clinical trials by identifying high-risk individuals before they enroll.

When she calls me, she can immediately tell if something is wrong, simply from the way I say "Hello" or "I'm fine". Like many relationships with those we hold close, my mom and I have built a level of trust to the point that she knows how I'm feeling from a simple word or phrase. But unfortunately, I, like many others in the world today, spend as much (if not more) time interacting with technology as I do with the people close to me. Yet unlike talking to my mom or a friend, the way we interact with devices is completely transactional. My cell phone can't read between the lines and understand what's really going on with me.

A car crashes while on autopilot and the driver dies. A hefty security robot at a US shopping mall knocks down and injures a child. Autonomous systems and machines that make their own decisions are here. And more are on the way, such as airborne and ground-based delivery drones. But the way they learn about the world and decide to act is complex and opaque and it is hard to know how often they will get it wrong.