Professor Stephen Hawking said the development of artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.
The famous astrophysicist said he believed technology would eventually become self-aware and supersede humanity, as it developed faster than biological evolution.
Hawking told the BBC:
The primitive forms of artificial intelligence we already have, have proved very useful. But I think the development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.”
Hawking, who is regarded as one of the world’s most brilliant living scientists said:
Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete and would be superseded,”
Hawking – who is wheelchair-bound as a result of his motor neurone disease, while emphasizing on the advantage of modern communications technology being one of the first people to be connected in the early days of the Internet, spoke of how he had received a “life-changing upgrade” to the computer software made by intel that allows him to communicate.
According to TheGuardian; Hawking has been in partnership with Intel for over 25 years. His MND is related to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. He was diagnosed in 1963, when he was 21, and given just two years to live. He turned 72 on 8 January 2014.
Hawking now uses a system that incorporates predictive text, allowing him to type twice as quickly as before and send emails ten times faster.
I was finding it very difficult to continue to communicate effectively and so do the things I love to do,” he told a press conference in London.
With the improvements made, I am now able to write much faster and that means I can continue to give lectures, write papers and books, and, of course, speak with my family and friends more easily.
Medicine has not been able to cure me, so I rely on technology to help me communicate and live,” he said.
Hawking has chosen to retain his familiar, slightly robotic sounding voice despite being offered something more natural.
We are pushing the boundaries of what is possible through technology – without it I would not be able to speak to you today,” he said.
Citing a warning, he said the Internet had brought dangers as well as benefits. Since many are willing to drop the natural things for artificial. Also in the area of crime.