I believe that one of the big stories of 2015 will be the ongoing rise of Artificial Intelligence. Already in these first few weeks there have been a number of articles trying to make sense of the rapid rise of smart software and the rapid development of deep learning.

Privacy has been a pressing concern over the past few years, and in spite of repeated attempts to argue that it was dead, or undesirable, it remains a priority for pretty much everyone.

Our personal information has been seduced, coerced, and vacuumed from our devices in ways that we will only understand after the fact.

Therefore the big debate for 2015 is what is to be done with that information? Who controls it? Who has access to it? What insights, conclusions, and absurd connections will be made by smart software that sorts through it?

To answer these questions, we require algorithmic transparency. We need to understand how the black box of society works, we cannot cede governance of our society to the smart software and nerds behind its curtain.

The role for public policy in this situation is significant and arguably rather urgent. There’s a clear need to assess the environment, properly understand the context, and then formulate an appropriate and possible response.

The irony is that the people who do take the time to understand, the experts, the pioneers, the folks who’ve had a front row seat this entire time, they’re starting to raise some serious concerns about the survival of humanity!

In the face of this growing concern, which government, or elected leader, is going to lead the public policy discussion around artificial intelligence?