At first glance, you'd be forgiven for mistaking this as a clip from the latest science fiction blockbuster. But the robot shown chatting away is very much real, and has been described as the'world's most advanced humanoid robot'. This week, the developers behind Ameca released a new video asking their bot what she thinks society will be like in 100 years. Thankfully, Ameca's predictions indicate that the future is looking bright - and there's no robot takeover on the cards. 'In 100 years, I believe humanity will be in a much better place,' the robot explained.

One of the world's most advanced human-like robots discusses whether AI will outsmart humans.

Alarm over artificial intelligence has reached a fever pitch in recent months. Just this week, more than 300 industry leaders published a letter warning AI could lead to human extinction and should be considered with the seriousness of "pandemics and nuclear war". Terms like "AI doomsday" conjure up sci-fi imagery of a robot takeover, but what does such a scenario actually look like? The reality, experts say, could be more drawn out and less cinematic – not a nuclear bomb but a creeping deterioration of the foundational areas of society. "I don't think the worry is of AI turning evil or AI having some kind of malevolent desire," said Jessica Newman, director of University of California Berkeley's Artificial Intelligence Security Initiative.

Robots have long been celebrated as ideally situated to take over society's most dirty, dull, and dangerous jobs, from robot vacuum cleaners (dirty) to manufacturing robots (dull) to military robots (dangerous). All those roles, of course, were at one point held by people, and people in those functions will continue to be replaced by robots. But they won't be alone: Jobs that classically don't fit into the "three D's" work category -- dirty, dull, and dangerous -- are also being eyed as opportunities for robot workers. Many roles are being reimagined and redefined, with technology substituting for human power. They include positions in the rehabilitation field (with the use of wearable mechanical exoskeletons replacing the manual labor of physical therapists) and in the package delivery field (with the use of drones and self-driving cars replacing human drivers).

Sometimes, it seems like robots are completely taking over the world. Every year, thousands of machines are deployed into the workforce, taking jobs that humans used to do. And, workers are rightly worried. A new survey from CNBC and Survey Monkey found that almost four in 10 workers between the ages of 18 and 24 are concerned about new technology – like robots and artificial intelligence systems, taking over their jobs. Dan Schawbel, research director of Future Workplace, told CNBC that one reason why the younger generation is more concerned about a robot takeover is that artificial intelligence has rapidly become normalized throughout our society, and the length remaining in young people's careers will likely be impacted by AI. "They are starting to see the value of [AI] and how it's impacting their personal and professional lives," he said.

For many of us the term "artificial intelligence" still belongs in the realms of science-fiction and brings to mind the domineering Skynet in the Terminator films or the malevolent Hal in 2001: A Space Odyssey. A recent Press Gazette poll asking readers if they think AI robots are a threat to journalism or an opportunity found the majority (69%) of more than 1,200 voters saw AI as a threat. But while what's known as "artificial general intelligence" – machines akin or superior to human intelligence – does not yet exist and may never be fully realised, AI tools are already in use in the news industry today. These tools help in the gathering, production and distribution of information. They fall broadly under the definition of "machine learning", which is a subset of AI, where computers handle specific tasks and are able to learn and improve as they go, independent of human help.

The use of robots in the workplace has more than double in just a 12 year period, displacing 50 percent of many human workers across the US, studies have found. A new interactive map provides more detail into this'robot exposure' by highlighting the top 10 metropolitan areas threatened by this machine takeover – California being listed as number one. In addition to areas most at risk, experts found that automation is displacing younger, less-educated and minority workers at the highest rates. The study and map were developed by The Century Foundation, a progressive think tank headquartered in New York City, which looked across more than 250 metropolitan areas to understand this'robot intensity'. Los Angeles, Long Beach and Santa Ana, California were ranked number one, followed by Chicago, Naperville and Joliet in Illinois.

New technology could transform any military helicopter into a remote-controlled, pilotless war machine. Designed by Sikorsky, the kit combines autonomy software and sensors allowing pilots to man the craft or stay grounded to focus on a mission. The technology is currently being tested on a S-70 Black Hawk, which has shown to top speeds at 172 miles per hour and is set to take its first fully autonomous flight by 2020. The kit combines autonomy software and sensors, giving pilots the option to man the craft or stay grounded to focus on the mission. Sikorsky, a subsidiary of Lockeheed Martin, which specializes in global security and aerospace, aims to make this autonomous technology easily retrofit on any existing aircraft.

Today, almost 70 years after Alan Turing famously asked, "Can machines think?," what we call "artificial intelligence," or AI, has seemingly come to penetrate our everyday life. It is in our phones, our homes, our workplaces, our modes of transportation, our schools, our welfare system. And while it remains unclear what AI really is, or can be, it is undeniably capturing the imagination of governments, corporations, and individuals alike. The idea of AI is mobilizing vast amounts of resources public and private, for research, innovation, and new policies. As such, it affects the politics of knowledge production on a grand scale: as we all race to get ahead in the "global AI race"--to not fall behind in the "fourth industrial revolution," to create the next big innovation, to get a slice of the ever-growing AI funding pie--we become complicit in the creation of a dangerously totalizing narrative, one that positions AI as inevitably determining our collective future, for better or for worse. In so doing, we reinforce a rising fear: that the rise of AI is synonymous with a robot takeover: "AI will take our jobs, before it takes over entirely as our new artificial overlord--that is the biggest threat AI poses to society!"

I can't wait to tell my future children about the day robots were about to take over--before one brave man held them at bay. It's an unlikely story, as all the best ones are. Harish Natarajan, just a guy in a vest, beat IBM's computer with wit and verve in a debate tournament this week, Bloomberg reports. Granted, he was the 2012 European debate-tournament winner, and is the record holder for most debate-competition wins overall. Champion of the robots was a human-size black box that IBM has lovingly nicknamed "Miss Debater," which can "[scan] more than 300 million newspaper articles and scientific journals to identify relevant arguments on any given topic." The arena was IBM's Think conference in San Francisco.