Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google sign in become a supporter subscribe search find a job dating more from the guardian: change edition: edition International edition The Guardian - Back to home browse all sections close Stephen Hawking Stephen Hawking: AI will be 'either best or worst thing' for humanity Professor praises creation of Cambridge University institute to study future of artificial intelligence Stephen Hawking at the opening of the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence on Wednesday.
 Future of Intelligence on Wednesday.
 Photograph: Chris Radburn/PA Stephen Hawking Stephen Hawking: AI will be 'either best or worst thing' for humanity Professor praises creation of Cambridge University institute to study future of artificial intelligence Alex Hern @alexhern Wed 19 Oct ‘16 21.
05 BST Last modified on Wed 22 Feb ‘17 17.
43 GMT This article is 1 year old Professor Stephen Hawking has warned that the creation of powerful artificial intelligence will be “either the best, or the worst thing, ever to happen to humanity”, and praised the creation of an academic institute dedicated to researching the future of intelligence as “crucial to the future of our civilisation and our species”.
 Hawking was speaking at the opening of the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (LCFI) at Cambridge University, a multi-disciplinary institute that will attempt to tackle some of the open-ended questions raised by the rapid pace of development in AI research.
 “We spend a great deal of time studying history,” Hawking said, “which, let’s face it, is mostly the history of stupidity.
 So it’s a welcome change that people are studying instead the future of intelligence.
” Huw Price is the centre’s academic director.
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Huw Price is the centre’s academic director.
 Photograph: Jon Tonks for the Guardian While the world-renowned physicist has often been cautious about AI, raising the risk that humanity could be the architect of its own destruction if it creates a superintelligence with a will of its own, he was also quick to highlight the positives that AI research can bring.
 The rise of robots: forget evil AI – the real risk is far more insidious Read more “The potential benefits of creating intelligence are huge,” he said.
 “We cannot predict what we might achieve when our own minds are amplified by AI.
 Perhaps with the tools of this new technological revolution, we will be able to undo some of the damage done to the natural world by the last one – industrialisation.
 And surely we will aim to finally eradicate disease and poverty.
 “Every aspect of our lives will be transformed.
 In short, success in creating AI could be the biggest event in the history of our civilisation.
” Huw Price, the centre’s academic director and the Bertrand Russell professor of philosophy at Cambridge University, where Hawking is also an academic, said that the centre came about partially as a result of the university’s Centre for Existential Risk.
 That institute, mocked by the tabloid press as offering “Terminator Studies”, examined a wider range of potential problems for humanity, while the LCFI has a narrow focus.
 “We’ve been trying to slay the ‘terminator’ meme,” Price said, “but like its namesake, it keeps coming back for more.
” AI pioneer Margaret Boden, professor of cognitive science at the University of Sussex, praised the progress of such discussions.
 As recently as 2009, she said, the topic wasn’t taken seriously, even among AI researchers.
 “AI is hugely exciting,” she said, “but it has limitations, which present grave dangers given uncritical use.
” The academic community is not alone in warning about the potential dangers of AI as well as the potential benefits.
 A number of pioneers from the technology industry, most famously the entrepreneur Elon Musk, have also expressed their concerns about the damage that a super-intelligent AI could wreak on humanity.
 Topics Loading comments… Trouble loading?
 more on this story Stephen Hawking's 1966 doctoral thesis made available for first time Cambridge University says Properties of Expanding Universes is already most-requested item in open access repository Published: 23 Oct 2017 Stephen Hawking's 1966 doctoral thesis made available for first time World's best Go player flummoxed by Google’s ‘godlike’ AlphaGo AI Ke Jie, who once boasted he would never be beaten by a computer at the ancient Chinese game, said he had ‘horrible experience’ Published: 23 May 2017 World's best Go player flummoxed by Google’s ‘godlike’ AlphaGo AI Artificial intelligence 'judge' developed by UCL computer scientists Software program can weigh up legal evidence and moral questions of right and wrong to predict the outcome of trials Published: 24 Oct 2016 Artificial intelligence 'judge' developed by UCL computer scientists Doctors back Stephen Hawking’s challenge to Jeremy Hunt NHS professionals and readers respond to the debate between Professor Hawking and the UK health secretary Published: 30 Aug 2017 Doctors back Stephen Hawking’s challenge to Jeremy Hunt + Jeremy Hunt continues war of words with Stephen Hawking over NHS Published: 27 Aug 2017 Jeremy Hunt continues war of words with Stephen Hawking over NHS + Stephen Hawking blames Tory politicians for damaging NHS Published: 19 Aug 2017 Stephen Hawking blames Tory politicians for damaging NHS + Google creates AI program that uses reasoning to navigate the London tube Published: 12 Oct 2016 Google creates AI program that uses reasoning to navigate the London tube + Machine logic: our lives are ruled by big tech's 'decisions by data' Julia Powles in Berlin Published: 8 Oct 2016 Machine logic: our lives are ruled by big tech's 'decisions by data' most viewed The Guardian back to top all sections close back to top All rights reserved.
 y%2CUniversity+of+Cambridge]