Our perception of AI seems trapped somewhere between the haunting voice of the murderous rogue computer HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey and the friendlier voices of today’s personal digital assistants—Cortana, Siri, and Alexa. We can daydream about how we will use our suddenly abundant spare time when machines drive us places, handle our most mundane chores, and help us make better decisions. Or we can fear a robot-induced massive economic dislocation. We can’t seem to get beyond this utopia/dystopia dichotomy.
