By Dan Satherley <\/p>\n
In the year 2029, humanity is almost completely obliterated, and the survivors of a nuclear holocaust are at war with an artificial intelligence network and its army of cyborg killing machines. <\/p>\n
That's the premise for the fictional movie Terminator, but could it become a reality? That's what academics at Cambridge University want to find out. <\/p>\n
\"It seems a reasonable prediction that some time in this or the next century intelligence will escape from the constraints of biology,\" says Cambridge philosophy professor Huw Price. <\/p>\n
To prepare for this, the university is setting up a Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, which will look into the \"four greatest threats\" to humanity, reports the Huffington Post: artificial intelligence, climate change, nuclear war and rogue biotechnology. <\/p>\n
It hopes to bring together philosophers, astronomers, biologists, neuroscientists and economics experts to look into scenarios which could end the human race. <\/p>\n
\"It tends to be regarded as a flakey concern, but given that we don't know how serious the risks are, that we don't know the time scale, dismissing the concerns is dangerous,\" says Prof Price. <\/p>\n
\"What we're trying to do is to push it forward in the respectable scientific community.\" <\/p>\n
He says humans' spread across the globe has been a disaster for many other species, and the same thing could happen to us in the next century, if computers somehow become self-aware, and start directing resources for their own benefit. <\/p>\n
British astronomer royal Lord Martin Rees and Skype founder Jann Tallinn are also involved in the new centre, which aims to launch next year. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Read this article:<\/p>\n
Is artificial intelligence a threat to humanity?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Dan Satherley In the year 2029, humanity is almost completely obliterated, and the survivors of a nuclear holocaust are at war with an artificial intelligence network and its army of cyborg killing machines. Continue reading