Why AI is a Fear-Driven Discipline

People fear what they don't understand, so it makes sense that highly complex systems like AI inspire fear. AI was created as a tool to better understand the world, to make models that reveal insights in how we interact with our environments. Most people don't think of the future of AI as something like this: A robot has never decided so much as to lift a finger on its own, and most industry experts think we'll never get to that point - the point of building consciousness, free will, and intelligence into machines.