It is difficult to predict when this might happen, but most artificial intelligence (AI) specialists estimate that it is more likely than not within this century. The leading AI researcher Stuart Russell suggests that, for better or worse, it would be'the biggest event in human history'. Stuart Russell and Martin Rees are affiliated with the new Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence at the University of Cambridge, where Huw Price is the academic director. Martin Rees and Jaan Tallinn are co-founders of the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge, where Huw Price is the academic director.

The UC Berkeley-led center, directed by artificial intelligence researcher Stuart Russell, will seek to understand how human values can be built into AI's design, and create a mathematical framework that will help people build AI systems that are beneficial to humanity. Scientists might get around this communication problem by designing artificial intelligence that can watch humans and learn what their values are through their actions (though even that comes with some uncertainty, as humans don't always act in ways aligned with their values, Russell added). The USC center, co-directed by artificial intelligence researcher Milind Tambe and social work scientist Eric Rice, seems to operate in a mindset perpendicular to the one at UC Berkeley: It seeks to harness AI's existing capabilities to solve problems in messy, complicated human contexts. AI also includes a wide range of tools, including machine learning, computer vision, natural language processing and game theory (though some may consider game theory part of another discipline, Tambe said).

However, the real risk posed by AI – at least in the near term – is much more insidious. The Center for Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence, launched this week with 5.5m in funding from the Open Philanthropy Project, is lead by computer science professor and artificial intelligence pioneer Stuart Russell. "The potential benefits [of AI research] are huge, since everything that civilization has to offer is a product of human intelligence; we cannot predict what we might achieve when this intelligence is magnified by the tools AI may provide, but the eradication of disease and poverty are not unfathomable," the letter reads. Similarly, an artificially intelligent hedge fund designed to maximize the value of its portfolio could be incentivized to short consumer stocks, buy long on defence stocks and then start a war – as suggested by Elon Musk in Werner Herzog's latest documentary.