We Welcome our Robot Overloads! :)

[Philipnet]

Stephen Hawking warns artificial intelligence could end mankind



Prof Stephen Hawking, one of Britain's pre-eminent scientists, has said that efforts to create thinking machines pose a threat to our very existence.

He told the BBC:"The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race."

His warning came in response to a question about a revamp of the technology he uses to communicate, which involves a basic form of AI.

But others are less gloomy about AI's prospects.

The theoretical physicist, who has the motor neurone disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), is using a new system developed by Intel to speak.

Machine learning experts from the British company Swiftkey were also involved in its creation. Their technology, already employed as a smartphone keyboard app, learns how the professor thinks and suggests the words he might want to use next.

Prof Hawking says the primitive forms of artificial intelligence developed so far have already proved very useful, but he fears the consequences of creating something that can match or surpass humans.


From: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-30290540

[Rob McCow]

He's only a 'Theoretical' physicist.

We have no way of predicting what an AI would or even could do. Just give it one robot arm and it could be Van Neumann Probes (self-replicating robots) as far as the eye can see, or maybe it'll subtly and without fuss solve all of humanities problems (as Asimov predicted).

[Darren]

Or we could have a Terminator scenario.

[Philipnet]

No, there's no idea what an AI would make us do ....



From: http://xkcd.com/1450/

[Stuart Wallis]

It'll never happen. Now excuse me, I have to reprogam The Lads...