Bill Gates, Stephen Hawking say artificial intelligence represents real threat

I worry about a lot of things — my health, my kids, and the size of my retirement account. I never worry about an impending robot apocalypse … but maybe I should. A handful of very smart people in the science and technology worlds are worried about that very thing.

First it was Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, who got the Internet all fired up when he answered questions in a Reddit “AskMeAnything” thread.

“I am in the camp that is concerned about super intelligence,” Gates wrote in response to a question about the existential threat posed by artificial intelligence (AI). “First, the machines will do a lot of jobs for us and not be super intelligent. That should be positive if we manage it well. A few decades after that, though, the intelligence is strong enough to be a concern.”

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here