Artificial intelligence: the end of the human race?

During the height of summer, an open letter to the United Nations warning of the dangers of Artificial Intelligence, signed by Tesla CEO Elon Musk and more than 100 other entrepreneurs, caused quite a stir in the media and the scientific community. The letter gave rise to a heated digitized debate between the Tesla CEO and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. The letter's signatories were alerting the international community about the possible defence applications of AI, and in particular about the threat of lethal autonomous weapons or "killer robots". It is within this context that I wish to address the theme of Artificial Intelligence here at the Women's forum for the Economy & Society Global Meeting in Paris (#WFGM17). The scope of the subject is constantly evolving and we at Thales owe the most recent advances in this domain to a woman at the CNRS / THALES research center in Palaiseau (Researchers unveil the world's first artificial nano-neuron with voice recognition capabilities). To claim that AI could "spell the end of the human race" may grab headlines, but the underlying debate over moral and political limitations on the use of intelligent weapons is legitimate, provided the discussions are clear-headed and dispassionate.