The renown cosmologist Max Tegmark said the world has little over 30 years to address the possibility of humans being replaced by superhuman machines.
Prof Tegmark, who founded the Future of Life Institute alongside business magnate Elon Musk and Prof Stephen Hawking, explained science should focus on developing ways to keep robots in check rather than focusing on a “stupid arms race.”
He said: “I think we have very little time to stave off this stupid arms race right now, basically glorified drones that make their own kill decisions.
“We might have a matter of decades to deal with the question of superhuman machines, which might sound like a very long time but it might take 30 years to get answers to AI safety research questions.”
Prof Tegmark recently published a book, Life 3.0. Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, in which he explores the possibility of machines quickly “outsmarting” humans.
He said: “I think the problem is that we’ve traditionally thought of intelligence as something mysterious the can only exist in biological organisms, especially humans.
“But intelligence is simply some kind of information processing performed by elementary particles that move around according to the laws of physics.
“There is no law of physics that says one can’t build machines more intelligent than us.”
“We should really start now so we have all the answers by the time we need them and not the night before some dude on Red Bull decides to switch on super intelligence.”
Experts have warned robots could take over from humans as artificial intelligence threatens to become smarter than those who create it.
A group of international enterprise bosses headed by Elon Musk has last week demanded the United Nations establish a ban on the creation of weaponisable AI tech.
The letter penned by the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots read: “Lethal autonomous weapons threaten to become the third revolution in warfare.
“We do not have long to act. Once this Pandora’s box is opened, it will be hard to close.”