May 5, 2014|11:23 am

Actor Johnny Depp as Dr. Will Caster in a scene from the science fiction movie 'Transcendence' (2014) currently playing in movie theaters.

"Imagine a machine with a full range of human emotions. Its analytical power will be greater than the collective intelligence of every person in the history of the world. Some scientists refer to this as the 'singularity'. I call it 'transcendence'," says Johnny Depp's character, Dr. Will Caster, in the haunting new science fiction drama "Transcendence."

While many moviegoers might embrace the power of artificial intelligence displayed in the movie released in theaters last month as just science fiction, world famous physicist Stephen Hawking along with computer scientist Stuart Russell, physicists Max Tegmark and Frank Wilczek say it could be a harbinger of humanity's doom.

Stephen Hawking, the British physicist and best-selling author famed for his work on time and space theory while confined to a wheelchair, answers questions during an interview in Orlando, Florida April 25, 2007. Hawking will fly weightless on the ZERO-G Experiment on April 26, 2007, the flight will take off from the Shuttle Landing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center.

"With the Hollywood blockbuster 'Transcendence' playing in cinemas, with Johnny Depp and Morgan Freeman showcasing clashing visions for the future of humanity, it's tempting to dismiss the notion of highly intelligent machines as mere science fiction. But this would be a mistake, and potentially our worst mistake in history," warn the scientists in a report in The Independent.

"Artificial-intelligence (AI) research is now progressing rapidly. Recent landmarks such as self-driving cars, a computer winning at Jeopardy! and the digital personal assistants Siri, Google Now and Cortana are merely symptoms of an IT arms race fuelled by unprecedented investments and building on an increasingly mature theoretical foundation. Such achievements will probably pale against what the coming decades will bring," they noted.

While praising the benefits humanity could reap from the creation of artificial intelligence and positing that it would be the "biggest event in human history," Hawking and his peers say it could be humanity's last unless "we learn how to avoid the risks."

A scene from the science fiction movie 'Transcendence'.

According to the scientists:

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Stephen Hawking Warns Artificial Intelligence Could be 'Worst Mistake in History' as Johnny Depp's 'Transcendence ...