May 21st, 2021 Between Microsoft’s Tay debacle, the controversies surrounding Northpointe’s Compas sentencing software, and Facebook’s own algorithms helping spread online hate, AI’s more egregious public failings over the past few years have shown off the technology’s skeevy underbelly — and just how much work we have to do before they can reliably and equitably interact with humanity. Of course such incidents have done little to tamp down the hype around and interest in artificial intelligences and machine learning systems, and they certainly haven’t slowed the technology’s march towards ubiquity. Turns out, one of the primary roadblocks to emerge against AI’s continued adoption have been the users themselves. We’re no longer the same dial-up rubes we were in the baud rate era. An entire generation has already grown to adulthood without ever knowing the horror of an offline world. And as such, we have seen a sea change in perspectives regarding the value of personal data and the business community’s responsibilities to change it. Just look at the overwhelmingly positive response to Apple’s recent iOS 14.5 update, which grants iPhone users an unprecedented level of control over how their app data is leveraged and by whom.