Artificial Intelligence: Endgame for Farming or Fresh Start?

In case you haven't noticed, human level machine intelligence is already here. The end of the world is coming … eventually. Shortly before his death last year, famed physicist Stephen Hawking left us with several rather grim predictions for the future of Earth and life on it. At the top of his list was the takeover of artificial intelligence (AI). In an interview with Wired, he was quoted as follows: "We need to move forward on artificial intelligence development, but we also need to be mindful of its very real dangers. I fear that AI may replace humans altogether. If people design computer viruses, someone will design AI that replicates itself. This will be a new form of life that will outperform humans."