Artificial intelligence researchers are facing a problem of accountability: How do you try to ensure decisions are responsible when the decision maker is not a responsible person, but rather an algorithm? Right now, only a handful of people and organizations have the power--and resources--to automate decision making. Organizations rely on AI to approve a loan or shape a defendant's sentence. But the foundations upon which these intelligent systems are built are susceptible to bias. Bias from the data, from the programmer, and from a powerful company's bottom line, can snowball into unintended consequences.

When we think of artificial intelligence, many of us jump to visions of the future from science fiction--hellscapes like The Matrix, Black Mirror, and The Terminator. But that isn't necessarily the way things will turn out. Two leading experts in the technology think there's more cause for optimism than pessimism, even though there will be speed bumps along the way. Kai-Fu Lee is the former head of Microsoft Research in Asia, and Google in China. He's now the chairman and CEO of Sinovation Ventures, a venture capital firm with nearly $3 billion in assets; roughly 70 percent of its investments are AI-related.

You might feel more optimistic about the future today than you did last year. But that's not exactly a high bar to clear: The slog of the past 18 months has shown us that we've still got a few kinks to work out in this whole society thing. That's why we bring you RE:WIRED. Navigating the future is going to take some serious work, as well as the willingness and insight to rethink how we shape the world. For two days--November 9th and 10th--WIRED is hosting a series of sessions with some of the top thinkers on the planet (and top thinkers about the planet).