Why humans can't trust AI: You don't know how it works, what it's going to do or whether it'll serve your interests

Do you trust AI systems, like this driverless taxi, to behave the way you expect them to? AP Photo/Terry Chea

There are alien minds among us. Not the little green men of science fiction, but the alien minds that power the facial recognition in your smartphone, determine your creditworthiness and write poetry and computer code. These alien minds are artificial intelligence systems, the ghost in the machine that you encounter daily.

But AI systems have a significant limitation: Many of their inner workings are impenetrable, making them fundamentally unexplainable and unpredictable. Furthermore, constructing AI systems that behave in ways that people expect is a significant challenge.