What If Self-Driving Cars Can’t See Stop Signs?

For all its impressive progress in mastering human tasks, artificial intelligence has an embarrassing secret: It’s surprisingly easy to fool. This could be a big problem as it takes on greater responsibility for people’s lives and livelihoods.

Thanks to advances in neural networks and “deep learning,” computer algorithms can now beat the best human players at games like Go, or recognize animals and objects from photos. In the foreseeable future, they’re likely to take over all sorts of mundane tasks, from driving people to work to managing investments. Being less prone than humans to error, they might also handle sensitive tasks such as air traffic control or scanning luggage for explosives.