Rise of the machines: Super intelligent robots could ‘spell the end of the human race’

Artificial intelligence is beginning to transform society, from babysitting children to self-driving cars.

But, many scientists, including Professor Stephen Hawking, argue it may only be a matter of time before they gain consciousness and destroy mankind like something out of science fiction.

Professor Hawking said: “The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.”

Robots could soon be weaponised and some people have advocated the advancement, arguing it could save lives.

But, a report by Human Rights Watch and the Harvard Law School International Human Rights Clinic has called for humans to remain in control of weapons at a time of rapid advancement.

Senior arms division researcher at Human Rights Watch, Bonnie Docherty, said: “Machines have long served as instruments of war, but historically humans have directed how they are used.”

“Now there is a real threat that humans would relinquish their control and delegate life-and-death decisions to machines.”

Professor Hawking, Elon Musk and more than 1,000 robotics experts warned that such weapons could be developed within years, not decades.

In an open letter, they say any major military power pushes ahead with development of autonomous race could cause a “global arms race”.

The letter said: “A global arms race is virtually inevitable, and the endpoint of this technological trajectory is obvious: autonomous weapons will become the Kalashnikovs of tomorrow.”

According to London-based organisation Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, we are moving toward systems that give machines greater combat autonomy.

But, if robots become conscious it raises a whole roster of ethical issues.

Would they be able to get away with war crimes? Because, if a robot unlawfully kills someone in battle, who is liable for the death?

A report by Human Rights Watch in 2016 said no one would.

The report “Mind the Gap: The Lack of Accountability for Killer Robots”, said: “No accountability means no deterrence of future crimes, no retribution for victims, no social condemnation of the responsible party.”

But, there is debate among scientists about what constitutes consciousness.

Some believe consciousness involves accepting new information, story and retrieving old information and cognitive processing of it into perceptions and actions.

If that is so then it would mean robots could be able to store more information than a human, or a library and compute decisions in milliseconds.

But some scientists and philosophers argue that there is more to human behaviour that cannot be computed by a machine.

For example, creativity and the sense of freedom people possess do not appear to come from logic or calculations.

It is possible that consciousness requires a self-organising system like the brain’s physical structure.

There is the lack of mathematical theory or computational system – for the moment.