Stephen Hawking Warns That AI and 'Superhumans' Could Wipe Humanity; Says There's No God in Posthumous Book

Stephen Hawking says artificial intelligence will eventually become so advanced it will 'outperform humans.' The renowned physicist who died in March warns of both rises in advanced artificial intelligence and genetically-enhanced 'superhumans' in a book published Tuesday. Hawking also weighed in on god, and aliens. From a report: According to an excerpt of the book 'Brief Answers to the Big Questions' published by the U.K.'s Sunday Times, Hawking wrote AI could prove 'huge' to humanity so long as restrictions are in place to control how quickly it grows. 'While primitive forms of artificial intelligence developed so far have proved very useful, I fear the consequences of creating something that can match or surpass humans,' Hawking wrote. 'Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn't compete and would be superseded.' Hawking wrote about a need for serious research to explore what impact AI would have on humanity, from the workplace to the military, where he expressed concerns about sophisticated weapons systems 'that can choose and eliminate their own targets.' Hawking also wrote about advances to manipulating DNA, or what he calls 'self-designed evolution. Early advances involving the gene-editing tool CRISPR include alerting DNA to create 'low-fat' pigs. CNN: 'There is no God. No one directs the universe,' he writes in 'Brief Answers to the Big Questions.' 'For centuries, it was believed that disabled people like me were living under a curse that was inflicted by God,' he adds. 'I prefer to think that everything can be explained another way, by the laws of nature.' 'There are forms of intelligent life out there,' he writes. 'We need to be wary of answering back until we have developed a bit further.' And he leaves open the possibility of other phenomena. 'Travel back in time can't be ruled out according to our present understanding,' he says. He also predicts that 'within the next hundred years we will be able to travel to anywhere in the Solar System.'

Read more of this story at Slashdot.