The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence

A revolt led by killer robots? A classic sci-fi plot is beginning to seem a little more plausible.

Predator drones have the ability to kill autonomously. There’s a mobile robot that can plug itself into a socket to recharge and a Smartphone virus can mimick you.

These are among the concerns that led a group of computer scientists to gather earlier this year to discuss the ethics, advances, and public worries surrounding artificial intelligence research. The group will release its findings later this year, but we’re getting an advance summary from Eric Horvitz.

Eric is senior researcher at Microsoft and former president of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence. He led the conference, and we asked him whether any of these advances in artificial intelligence keep him up at night.

New Scientist: Smart machines: What's the worst that could happen?

(Photo by JimNTexas via Flickr/Creative Commons)