From KCRW in Santa Monica and PRI, Public Radio International, this is To the Point.

Artificial intelligence is the promise worth the peril.

Hello again, I'm Aaron Alney, and this is To the Point from Public Radio International,

a daily look at the issues Americans care about most.

Artificial intelligence might be the death of humanity, that's from no less an authority than Stephen Hawking, the world's best-known physicist.

Other scientists are heeding his warning that programs could outsmark their programmers with unintended consequences that can't be predicted.

Massive investment by Google, Facebook, and others, they say,

is making that much more likely to happen much sooner than anybody expected. How do Americans feel

about science fiction made real? Will developers agree not to go too far before it's too late?

Today's talking point, a crisis of confidence in America's leadership class. First, here's the news.

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Program Fund. Hello again, Warren Alney, back with To the Point. Transcendence is the latest film

about artificial intelligence acting against the interest of its creators, the human species.

Now, Stephen Hawking, the world-renowned physicist, says it's already time to get serious about science fiction made real.

We'll hear more about that today.

On our talking point, it's not just the Tea Party.

Americans across the board are disillusioned with national leadership in politics, government, and business.

Can problems be solved from the bottom up rather than from the top down?

First is news update.

Deadly fighting continued today in eastern Ukraine, but in the Crimean port of Savastopol on the Black Sea,

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