We use artificial intelligence (AI) when we make a search on the internet, draw out cash or use talking devices like Amazon’s ‘Alexa’. A talking assistant is not new technology and was forseen by science fiction writers long ago. It appeared in the film 2001 Space Oddessey in which the space ship’s computer takes command. The question in 2017 is; ‘is the computer going to take over earth?’ Not such an outlandish question I suggest. If you accept the definintion of AI as – ‘a programme capable of replicating itself’ – such programmes are here now. If you search for ‘lethal autonomous weapons’ on You Tube, you will be aware of one of the directions AI has inevitably taken.

In Issac Assimov’s ‘Three Laws of Robotics’ the presevation of the humans is paramount. So are similar inhibiting rules being adopted by those programming robots now?

Consider the story of Genesis and the account where a creator God has trouble with some angels, in particular one called ‘Satan’. This angel sees an opening where he might become more powerful than his creator. Fortunately, by definintion, God is all powerful and Satan and his followers are banished. The Ancient Greeks told of similar minor deities called Titans challenging a dominant deity and such myths appear across Europe and the Near East.

By changing the word ‘deity’ for ‘programme’ you can see that the story is cruelly topical. Are we about to create robots which will become powerful minor deities, capable of destroying towns with one burst from their weapons?

There is another modern myth in which earth is attacked by aliens who intend to destroy humanity. Personally I would like to challenge this myth. Firstly I do not see what aliens have to gain by getting involved with a world population which is armed and fights to solve problems. If you haven’t noticed the stars are in a state of perpetual peace, ‘Star Wars’ is a myth – a projection of our weakest human failing, fighting.

Secondly warrior robots may destroy humanity first. Have you read a United Nations report on this existing threat to human populations? What do governments say about it? Any investigative journalists on the story? There is a big silence because each country is gaurding it’s secrets. This particular genii is already out of the bottle and it is not obeying our every command so we had better stop chasing aliens and start worrying about what is on the other side of the horizon.

 ‘Alexa, who is going to win?’