Former champion of the ancient board game Go, Lee Sedol, retired from professional play. His reason: “I’ve realized, even if I become number one, there is an entity that cannot be defeated.”  Lee was referring to AlphaGo, an AI system created by Google-owned company, DeepMind.

DeepMind’s use of neural network technology to outsmart the best human player on the planet marks a dramatic change in the perceived sophistication and potential of AI.

The concern is if we are capable of creating machines more intelligent than we are, then that generation of machines is capable of creating machines more intelligent again. This would lead to an exponential situation where human intelligence is quickly and irretrievably left far behind by machine intelligence. Consequently, we would lose authority and control.