Stephen Hawking Warns Robots Could 'Replace Humans Altogether'

Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk are on the same page when it comes to the threat Artificial Intelligence poses to the human race. In a recent interview with Wired, Hawking voiced his concerns about the potential AI has for making humans obsolete.

The physicist and author told Wired that he believes that AI will be able to reach a level of efficiency that will allow it to "outperform humans." Not only does he fear that AI could end up making humans obsolete, he worries that AI could actually take over, "I fear that AI may replace humans altogether. If people design computer viruses, someone will design AI that improves and replicates itself. This will be a new form of life that outperforms humans," he told Wired, Cambridge News reported.

This isn’t the first time he’s made such a prediction about the future involving robots, aliens or the human race. Last October, during the launch of the Artificial Intelligence center at Cambridge University he said he doesn’t believe there is a large difference between what the human brain can accomplish and what a computer can accomplish. "In short, the rise of powerful AI will be either the best, or the worst thing, ever to happen to humanity," he said, according to Cambridge News. His belief is that AI has the potential to either make or break society as we know it. Just a few months after this he told BBC that he thinks AI, "could spell the end of the human race."

While it could be highly negative for society, Hawking believes that it also hold great potential for good as well like curing disease, finding a solution to poverty and other beneficial improvements for society and civilization as a whole.

This is a bit different than Elon Musk’s predictions for a future with AI. Musk has been vocal about his belief that AI might end up also making humans obsolete, demoting the entire species to the same role as a house cat, he said at a conference in 2016. But he’s taken his warnings a bit further and has actually advised that the government come up with regulations for the creation of AI to help slow down the process a bit.

In June he tweeted that he believed AI would surpass human intelligence within the next 20 to 30 years or so, within that time span he thinks robots will be able to outperform humans. This is a bit less time the Hawking has said humans have left. Hawking's stated before that he thinks humans have about 100 years left on Earth, and that established homes on other planets will be necessary to keep the race alive.