One day in the not-so-distant future, robots could help humans out in the workplace by taking notes or sketching helpful diagrams. That's one of the objectives of a new robot created by researchers from Brown University that can learn to write languages and sketch drawings practically on its own. After learning to write Japanese characters, the robot was able to teach itself how to copy words in 10 different languages, including Hindi, Greek and English, just by studying various examples. It uses an algorithm that helps the robot decide where and how to place each pen stroke that distinguishes each letter in the alphabet, as well as what order to place them in to make the correct word. 'Just by looking at a target image of a word or sketch, the robot can reproduce each stroke as one continuous action,' Atsunobi Kotani, who led the study, said in a statement.

Two years ago Stephen Hawking told the BBC that the development of full artificial intelligence, could spell the end of the human race. His was not the only voice warning of the dangers of AI - Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Steve Wozniak also expressed their concerns about where the technology was heading - though Professor Hawking's was the most apocalyptic vision of a world where robots decide they don't need us any more. What all of these prophets of AI doom wanted to do was to get the world thinking about where the science was heading - and make sure other voices joined the scientists in that debate. That they have achieved that aim was evident on Wednesday night at an event in Cambridge marking the opening of the Centre for the Future of Intelligence, designed to do some of that thinking about the implications of AI. And Professor Hawking was there to help launch the centre.

That being said and proclaimed, I will strive to demonstrate that artificial intelligence is no more dangerous than human beings and that AI can give us new innovative opportunities to reach a more just and honourable world. Indeed, as pointed out by the British philosopher Thomas Hobbles, in his book « Leviathan », human being does not need anyone to harm himself. We have the power of nuclear weapons capable of mass destroying our human species and leaving only one Earth plunged into darkness and irradiation for thousands of years. Are these robots that created this? 20 million deaths in 4 years during the 1st World War … the fault of Artificial Intelligence perhaps? Slavery, religion or ethnic wars, pollution, food produced with the reinforcement of tons of deadly pesticides, global warming … and so on and so on, the list of facts showing that humans does not need anyone, and especially not AI to harm humanity, would be very long.

Two years ago Stephen Hawking told the BBC that the development of full artificial intelligence, could spell the end of the human race. His was not the only voice warning of the dangers of AI - Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Steve Wozniak also expressed their concerns about where the technology was heading - though Professor Hawking's was the most apocalyptic vision of a world where robots decide they don't need us any more. What all of these prophets of AI doom wanted to do was to get the world thinking about where the science was heading - and make sure other voices joined the scientists in that debate. That they have achieved that aim was evident on Wednesday night at an event in Cambridge marking the opening of the Centre for the Future of Intelligence, designed to do some of that thinking about the implications of AI. And Professor Hawking was there to help launch the centre.

Two years ago Stephen Hawking told the BBC that the development of full artificial intelligence, could spell the end of the human race. His was not the only voice warning of the dangers of AI - Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Steve Wozniak also expressed their concerns about where the technology was heading - though Professor Hawking's was the most apocalyptic vision of a world where robots decide they don't need us any more. What all of these prophets of AI doom wanted to do was to get the world thinking about where the science was heading - and make sure other voices joined the scientists in that debate. That they have achieved that aim was evident on Wednesday night at an event in Cambridge marking the opening of the Centre for the Future of Intelligence, designed to do some of that thinking about the implications of AI. And Professor Hawking was there to help launch the centre.

Speaking at the University of Oxford last May at the annual Silicon Valley comes to Oxford event, Bostrom said: "I personally believe that once human equivalence is reached, it will not be long before machines become superintelligent after that. It might take a long time to get to human level but I think the step from there to superintelligence might be very quick. I think these machines with superintelligence might be extremely powerful, for the same basic reasons that we humans are very powerful relative to other animals on this planet. It's not because our muscles are stronger or our teeth are sharper, it's because our brains are better."