WHEN it comes to emerging technologies, we know what we’re afraid of, even though we may not know why. There is no shortage of public debate about genetically modified crops, nanotechnology and cloning. And policy makers have responded: many countries have laws that restrict the way these technologies can be used.
So why the deafening silence about the potential dangers of artificial intelligence? Here is a technology that is already changing the world: AI is used in everything from guided missiles to air-traffic control. It is not yet “intelligent” in the human sense, but that looks likely to change. The…
