Mark Coeckelbergh

"AI is already happening today and it is pervasive, often invisibly embedded in our day-to-day tools and as part of complex technological systems."

"Darwin and Freud dethroned our beliefs of exceptionalism, our feelings of superiority, and our fantasies of control; today, artificial intelligence seems to deal yet another blow to humanity's self-image"

"Machine learning can be used to recognize faces (and even recognize emotions based on analysis of the faces), make search suggestions, drive a car, make personality predictions, predict who is going to re-offend, or recommend music to listen to."

"Scientists used to create theories to explain data and make predictions; in machine learning, the computer creates its own models that fit the data"

"The danger is, once again, the exercise of power without knowledge and (therefore) without responsibility—and, worse, others being subjected to this"

"Even if transparency were desirable and possible, it may be difficult to realize it in practice. For example, private companies may not be willing to reveal their algorithms because they want to protect their commercial interests."