Clever computers: The dawn of artificial intelligence The Economist

"THE development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race," Stephen Hawking warns. Elon Musk fears that the development of artificial intelligence, or AI, may be the biggest existential threat humanity faces. Bill Gates urges people to beware of it. Dread that the abominations people create will become their masters, or their executioners, is hardly new. But voiced by a renowned cosmologist, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and the founder of Microsoft--hardly Luddites--and set against the vast investment in AI by big firms like Google and Microsoft, such fears have taken on new weight.