Experts are looking at ways to create AI which will ultimately benefit humanity and Google's director of engineering, Ray Kurzweil, backs up that theory. However, he insists mankind will have to endure "difficult episodes" on the way to achieving machine learning which falls in line with our goals. Mr Kurzweil said at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in Washington, DC, that technology is a "double-edged sword" which has helped and hindered humans, and he expects the same of AI. The 69-year old said: "Technology has always been a double-edged sword. Fire kept us warm, cooked our food and burned down our houses.

Mr Kurzweil continued by stating that predictions that AI will enslave humans is "not realistic", adding that it is already ubiquitous. He said: "We don't have one or two AIs in the world. What he envisions is actually a world where AI's purpose is to benefit humanity, rather than exceed it, before predicting that we will one day finally merge with machines which, he believes, will massively improve us as beings.