Artificial Intelligence: Are We Creating Something We Won't Be Able to Control?

Artificial intelligence is becoming more capable at an extraordinary rate. It's already writing computer programs, analyzing medical information, producing convincing fake videos, and performing work that once required trained professionals.

But here's the question that doesn't seem to get enough attention: Who is actually going to control this technology?

A handful of enormously powerful corporations are developing systems that could eventually make decisions affecting millions of people. Those corporations have financial incentives to develop increasingly capable AI, even when the consequences aren't fully understood.

We're repeatedly assured that safeguards will prevent serious problems. Yet the companies developing these systems are often the same ones responsible for evaluating their safety.

Should AI development be subject to independent oversight, even if that slows progress? Or should companies be free to develop whatever technology they can create?

And at what point does artificial intelligence become too powerful for society to control?