Brave new world? Sci-fi fears 'hold back progress of AI', warns expert

The promise of artificial intelligence could be lost to humanity because people fear Terminator-style robots and other doomsday scenarios, an expert has warned. Hyperbole about the risks of artificial intelligence threaten to scupper developments that could assist humanity, from driverless cars that could cut down road accidents to medical systems that could revolutionise healthcare, said Chris Bishop, director of Microsoft Research in Cambridge. "The danger I see is if we spend too much of our attention focusing on Terminators and Skynet and the end of humanity – or generally just painting a too negative, emotive and one-sided view of artificial intelligence – we may end up throwing the baby out with the bathwater," Bishop told the Guardian ahead of a discussion about machine learning at the Royal Society on Tuesday. He said he "completely disagreed" with the views of high-profile naysayers such as Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking. The latter has previously warned that the "development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race".