Automation Nightmare: Philosopher Warns We Are Creating a World Without Consciousness

Recently, a conference on artificial intelligence, tantalizingly titled "Superintelligence: Science or Fiction?", was hosted by the Future of Life Institute, which works to promote "optimistic visions of the future". The conference offered a range of opinions on the subject from a variety of experts, including Elon Musk of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, futurist Ray Kurzweil, Demis Hassabis of Google's DeepMind, neuroscientist and author Sam Harris, philosopher Nick Bostrom, philosopher and cognitive scientist David Chalmers, Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn, as well as computer scientists Stuart Russell and Bart Selman. The discussion was led by MIT cosmologist Max Tegmark. The conversation's topics centered on the future benefits and risks of artificial superintelligence, with everyone generally agreeing that it's only a matter of time before AI becomes paramount in our lives. Eventually, AI will surpass human intelligence, with the ensuing risks and transformations.