Artificial intelligence and machine learning promise to radically transform many industries, but they also pose significant risks — many of which are yet to be discovered, given that the technology is only now beginning to be rolled out in force.
There have already been a number of public, and embarrassing, examples of AI gone bad. Microsoft’s Tay went from innocent chatbot to a crazed racist in just a day, corrupted by Twitter trolls. Two years ago, Google had to censor image searches for keywords like “gorilla” and “chimp” because it returned photos of African-Americans — and the problem still hasn’t been fully fixed in its Google Photos app.
As businesses increasingly embrace AI, the stakes will only get higher.
