SACRAMENTO, California: The use of bots to meddle in political elections. Algorithms that learn who people are and keep them coming back to social media platforms. The rise of autonomous vehicles and drones that could displace hundreds of thousands of workers.
The "robot apocalypse" that some envisioned with the rise of artificial intelligence hasn't arrived, but machine learning systems are becoming part of Californians' everyday lives, tech experts told state lawmakers in Sacramento earlier this month. As use of the technology becomes more widespread, so will the challenges for legislators who will have to grapple with how and when they should step in to protect people's personal data.