Don't look now, but artificial intelligence is watching you. Artificial intelligence has tremendous power to enhance spying, and both authoritarian governments and democracies are adopting the technology as a tool of political and social control. The potential of AI surveillance is the subject of the third installment of the Sleepwalkers podcast. The episode examines how AI consolidates power and control, and asks if we can limit this troubling trend. Data collected from apps and websites already help optimize ads and social feeds.

In March 2018, an eerie portrait created by an artificial intelligence program sold at Christie's Auction House for almost half a million dollars. A few months later, a movie written and directed by an AI algorithm was released amid much hype. And this March, a record company signed an AI artist for the first time. Artificial creativity is the subject of the second episode of the Sleepwalkers podcast, an ongoing series exploring the implications of AI. Machine-made art has flourished in recent years, thanks to advances in AI, and some examples are both impressive and unnerving.

Artificial intelligence now shapes our lives in profound ways, curating social media posts that drive us apart, determining who gets a loan or probation, and even helping choose our romantic partners. This week, WIRED is launching Sleepwalkers, based on a series of podcasts that examine the AI revolution. The first episode, available here, examines how AI manipulates and exploits us. It asks what kind of a future are we letting the technology build and offers some ideas for what to do about it. Host Oz Woloshyn discusses the sway that AI has over us with several experts trying to understand technology's influence and to unravel where we may be headed.