Create rather than kill with artificial intelligence, says AI pioneer

From self-driving cars to Amazon's Alexa, artificial intelligence is already here. But some fear AI could be used to create killer robots. Nobel Peace laureate Jody Williams is helping to lead a campaign for a new international treaty to prohibit lethal autonomous weapons, which select targets to fire without consultation from a human being. Williams said at a news conference on Monday that killer robots "are crossing a moral and ethical Rubicon and should not be allowed to exist and be used in combat or in any other way". While more and more governments are heavily investing in AI for military purposes -- the Pentagon alone has pledged up to two billion dollars on AI research -- Ben Goertzel, the AI pioneer behind Sophia the Robot, told Euronews that he hopes humankind turns away from using AI, especially within the military. "I have no illusion I'm going to stop the militaries of the world from developing autonomous weapons systems," he said.