Artificial Intelligence, Science Fiction, and Fear

Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies such as machine learning and deep neural networks hold great promise for improving, even revolutionizing many application areas and domains. This chapter looks at some of the main challenges in the development of intelligent systems – systems that include one or more AI‐based components to produce intelligent behavior – including reliability, safety, dependability, explainability, and susceptibility to interference or hacking. The first technique that can be applied when confronting some of the difficulties of an intelligent system is to compare the situation to one in which a human being is performing the role instead of an intelligent system. The mental technique called the systems analogy involves making a comparison between an AI system and an existing system with similar attributes, often resulting in a broader perspective than considering the AI in isolation.