Stephen Hawking warned Artificial Intelligence could end human race

NEW DELHI: Eminent astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, who died today, had warned that the efforts to develop artificial intelligence (AI) and create thinking machines could spell the end of the human race. Hawking, known for his work on black holes and relativity, was regarded as one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists since Albert Einstein. He was suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease since he was 20. Despite being told that he had just two more years to live in 1963, Hawking continued to make path breaking contributions to science till the age of 76. In the last few years, Hawking repeatedly warned about the threat of climate change, artificial intelligence, population burden and hostile aliens.