What is it about humanity that we can’t give away to intelligent machines? A European perspective

•Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have created ‘intelligent machines’.•The article debates tensions between human freedom and intelligent machine control.•AI tensions examined in four contexts: crime and conflict, jobs, attention, and wellbeing.•Humans must preserve critique of AI, human involvement in AI decisions, and explainable AI.•Presents an agenda for future AI and humanity research.