Artificial Intelligence (AI) represents great opportunity, but also significant disruption for modern societies and cultures. This free online short course investigates the historical, ethical and social issues surrounding this technology. It is aimed at people interested in understanding where this technology has come from, the kinds of opportunities it brings to modern and future societies, but also the risks it presents, and what steps we might take to avoid such risks.This course has been developed from LG003 - AI matters. The Open University has launched a dedicated learning centre called The Open Centre for Languages and Cultures. OpenLearn is supporting this project and is providing extracted units of all courses on The Open Centre in our dedicated Language and cultures hub.