Stephen Hawking warned last week that artificial intelligence could be “the worst thing ever to happen to humanity,” further emphasizing his fear that it could soon fully replace humans and render mankind useless.

While recently I’ve read a lot about AI and how it could benefit humanity (https://iq.intel.com/artificial-intelligence-is-good-for-society/) it’s typically been in articles produced by those who have the most to gain by replacing humans or the ones selling AI tech like FB, Microsoft and Amazon.

Believe me, it’s not that I don’t love the idea of robots doing ‘smart’ work on behalf of the human race, I just think that’s being a little bit naive as to how they might be deployed. I’m on the same page as Elon Musk who warns that AI, if not contained now, could be a very big problem in the future.

It seems to be the general sentiment that, “autonomous weapon systems threaten to become the third revolution in warfare. If developed, they will permit armed conflict to be fought at a scale greater than ever before, and at timescales faster than humans can comprehend,”

Yikes! Better safe than sorry, no?

Will AI be the end of us?