Future weapons arms race spells DOOM for mankind, warns Stephen Hawking

SUPER brainbox Professor Stephen Hawking has warned humanity of the risks of “rogue artificial intelligence” as the governments of world develop increasingly dangerous AI driven weapons.

By Henry Holloway

FUTURE: Hawking has warned the 'AI arms race' could led to the fall of mankind

Already mankind is starting to see increasing automation in our lives, with unmanned drones dropping bombs on the Middle East, self driving cars, and even serving us food at McDonald's.

But Hawking says as the world's superpowers engage in an “AI arms race” humanity is at risk of marching towards a Terminator-style apocalypse.

In an interview with veteran American TV host Larry King, the professor made the stark warning as he said the world seems more interested in developing AI driven weapons than peacetime tech.

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The top scientist warned about the “greed and stupidity” of the human race, saying this could lead to us destroying ourselves.

But while he said AI could bring benefits to mankind and we could “co-exist”, he warned of its power and said “a rogue AI could be difficult to stop”.

Super robots were named earlier this year by the Global Priorities Project as one of the biggest threatsto mankind.

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Hawking said: “Governments seem to be engaged in an AI arms race, designing planes and weapons with intelligent technologies.

“The funding for projects directly beneficial to the human race, such as improved medical screening, seems a somewhat lower priority.”

He added: “I don’t think that advances in artificial intelligence will necessarily be benign.

“Once machines reach the critical stage of being able to evolve themselves, we cannot predict whether their goals will be the same as ours.”

Previously Hawking has warned the earth is facing an inevitable apocalypse, whether that be at the hands of robots, nuclear war or superbugs.

Tech giant google are currently developing an AI kill switch in an effort to defeat any robot uprisings.

Just last week, Vladimir Putin’s government announced Russia will be investing £1.4 trillion in future technologies.