Professor Stephen Hawking has issued a stark warning recently, saying that he believes within the next 100 years human civilization faces extinction, thanks to man-made threats.
The Astrophysicist warned users taking part in a Q+A on Reddit that the rise of artificial intelligence, nuclear bombs, and aliens could see the entire human race wiped from the face of the earth.
Anonhq.com reports:
While Hawking believes technology can ensure mankind’s survival, he simultaneously warns further developing AI could prove a fatal mistake. In a lengthy Q&A session on Reddit, Hawking explained how AI is humanity’s biggest existential threat:
“The real risk with AI isn’t malice but competence. A super intelligent AI will be extremely good at accomplishing its goals, and if those goals aren’t aligned with ours, we’re in trouble.
Artificial Intelligence is the worst mistake we have ever made – Stephen Hawking
“If they [artificially intelligent machines] become clever, then we may face an intelligence explosion, as machines develop the ability to engineer themselves to be far more intelligent. That might eventually result in machines whose intelligence exceeds ours by more than ours exceeds that of snails.”
You’re probably not an evil ant-hater who steps on ants out of malice, but if you’re in charge of a hydroelectric green energy project and there’s an anthill in the region to be flooded, too bad for the ants. Let’s not place humanity in the position of those ants.