Although artificial intelligence has become commonplace—most smartphones contain some version of AI, such as speech recognition—the public still has a poor understanding of the technology. As a result, a diverse cast of critics, driven by fear of technology, opportunism, or ignorance, has jumped into the intellectual vacuum to warn policymakers that, sooner than we think, AI will produce a parade of horrible outcomes. Unfortunately, their voices have grown so loud that we are nearing a tipping point where their narratives may be accepted as truth, which would create a real risk that policymakers will decide to ratchet back the pace of progress. With the White House convening a discussion later this week on the social and economic implications of artificial intelligence technologies, to be followed just days later by the 25th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Rob Atkinson rebuts these pervasive and pernicious myths in the Huffington Post.
