Artificial Intelligence Risk – What Researchers Think is Worth Worrying About TechEmergence.com

The year 2015 might be seen as the year that "artificial intelligence risk" or "artificial intelligence danger" went mainstream (or close to it). With the founding of Elon Musk's Open AI and The Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, the increased attention on the Future of Life Institute and Oxford's Future of Humanity Institute, and a flurry of attention around celebrity comments around AI dangers (including the now well-known statements of Bill Gates and Elon Musk), it's safe to say that AI risk has embedded itself as a topic of pop-culture discourse – even if it's not a very serious one at present. Recently, we interviewed and reached out to a total of over 30 artificial intelligence researchers (all except one of whom hold a PhD) to ask them which AI risks they believe to be the most likely – if any – in the next 20, and in the next 100 years, respectively. Below you can see a list of all of our respondents, clicking on a respondent will bring up their answer to the 20-year risk question. Interestingly enough, automation and economic impact topped this list – coinciding with the massive media attention on autonomous vehicles, improved robotic manufacturing, and more.