The vision of robots taking over the world might sound like something out of a dystopian science fiction novel. But robots will outnumber humans by 2048, an expert has predicted today. According to'leading futurologist' Dr Ian Pearson, earth's robot population will grow from around 57 million to 9.4billion over the next 30 years. Dr Pearson, a British novelist, engineer and inventor, said robots could also become'emotionally intelligent' by 2028. He said his predictions are based on the'modest' assumption that the number of robots will grow by a fifth each year.

The income from human labor gets taxed. Founder & and CEO of SoftBank Group, Masayoshi Son, speaks during a keynote speech at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on February 27, 2017 in Barcelona. BARCELONA--In 30 years, your shoes will be smarter than you. That's not meant to be an insult but rather what Masayoshi Son believes will be the case as robots outnumber humans and exceed their intelligence in just three decades. The chairman and CEO of Japan's SoftBank Group outlined his vision of the future during remarks made on stage at the Mobile World Congress tech conference underway this week in Barcelona.

Masayoshi Son, CEO of mobile company Softbank, has predicted that there will be more smart robots helping humans than there will be people on Earth by 2040. The Japanese businessman also claimed that 1 trillion microchips designed for the so-called internet of things (IoT) will be delivered around the world over the next 20 years. Mr Son, also CEO of IoT software company ARM, made the comments at the World Mobile Congress in Barcelona today. He went on to say that the number of microchip'brain cells' will overtake the number of human neurons in 2018. CEO and chairman of mobile company Softbank and its IoT subsidiary ARM Masayoshi Son (pictured here with Softbank robot'Pepper' in 2014) announced at the World Mobile Congress that ARM will deliver a trillion microchips designed for the internet of things by 2040 Although the term'Internet of Things' (IoT) first appeared in 2005, there is still no widely accepted definition. The phrase'IoT' often refers to devices or sensors - other than computers, smartphones, or tablets - that connect, communicate or transmit information over the web.