Attention to potential threats posed by algorithms that fail to seamlessly work together was raised in 2018 when miscommunicating algorithms caused a fatal self-driving car accident. Such franken-algorithm mishaps continue to be a threat as evidenced by recent stock market glitches.

The ever-growing proliferation of algorithm-driven computing—Facebook alone has billions of algorithms working together—and A.I.-developed algorithms suggest that containing the franken-algorithm threat may prove a challenge.