Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking and Bill Gates have warned about the potential dangers of unchecked artificial intelligence.

The geniuses have had some help from Hollywood films, going all the way back to the 1968 film "2001: A Space Odyssey" and all the way up to last year's "Ex Machina."

But this may be even more frightening: AI is already part of the operations within many companies we interact with every day, from Apple's Siri to how Uber dispatches drivers to the way Facebook arranges its Newsfeed. In fact, Facebook is making research into AI a priority, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently stating that one of his goals this year is to "code" a personal assistant to "help run his life."

Or take it over?