Artificial intelligence talks (and talks): the story since '2001: A Space Odyssey'

Almost everyone knows the story of HAL 9000, the killer supercomputer in Stanley Kubrick's landmark film 2001: A Space Odyssey, whose 50th anniversary will be celebrated on May 12, 2018 at the 71st Cannes Film Festival. In an intriguing scheduling coincidence, IBM, Kubrick's partner during the filming of A Space Odyssey, and Airbus have just unveiled the CIMON (Crew Interactive Mobile Companion) project, an "intelligent, mobile and interactive astronaut assistance system" that will join the International Space Station. These two events propel us into a debate over the risks created by the development of superintelligence that could eliminate jobs on a massive scale or, even worse, wipe the human species off the face of the planet – and raise the question of how to assess such a threat. To date, we have no experience of accidents or disasters due to faulty or malicious AI. However, the imaginations of artists and scientists are a treasure trove of material that tells the story of superintelligence freed from any human control.