Robots that escape from police, algorithms that unwittingly conspire to create $23 million price tags, and chatbots whose creative output rivals that of their human creators; these are no longer far-off hypotheticals. AI expert Marek Kowalkiewicz, at the recent AUSCERT conference, shared his research and learning in this space. Kowalkiewicz, who coined the term ‘digital minions’ to describe our new AI companions, argues that we are witnessing the dawn of a new economic age, one in which not just businesses and consumers, but algorithms themselves, act as meaningful players. Some of the most viral AI moments sound like punchlines. Take the infamous ‘AI camera mistake’, where a system tracking a soccer ...