Artificial Intelligence Could End Mankind: Stephen Hawking

Physicist Stephen Hawking has warned that the rise of artificial intelligence could see the human race become extinct.

In an interview with the BBC, the scientist said that while "primitive forms" of artificial intelligence have proved useful, if the technology is developed to a level that can surpass humans, it "could spell the end of the human race."

He said that advanced artificial intelligence would "take off on its own, and redesign itself at an ever increasing rate."

Human biological evolution will not be able to compete and "would be superseded," he said in the interview Tuesday.

The eminent scientist on Tuesday also announced that the speech software developed for him by Intel would be open sourced, and made available publicly in January to could help millions of motor neurone disease sufferers.

The wheelchair-bound theoretical physicist, who shot to international fame in the 1980s with his book "A Brief History of Time", hailed the decision by US tech giant Intel at a press conference in London.

"By making this technology freely available, it has the potential to greatly improve the life of disabled people all over the world," said Hawking, his words relayed by the robotic voice of his computer.

His current system, developed by Intel over the past three years, reduces the number of moves needed to spell out words, as well as giving him new functions for the first time such as sending email attachments.

Written with agency inputs