Happy New Year -- Let's Talk About Human Extinction (ValleyWag)

Lead paragraphs from an AI reality check by Dan Lyons

"Stephen Hawking sees the danger of artificial intelligence. So does Elon Musk. Oxford professor Nick Bostrom, head of the Future of Humanity Institute, has written a whole book about it. Even the scientists at Google DeepMind, who are developing artificial intelligence, seem a little spooked about it.

What they all say, in one form or another, is that AI could be dangerous. Some go further and say that if and when true artificial intelligence emerges, humans will face extinction. We will simply be outcompeted by a superior new species, one that we ourselves have created."

Happy New Year -- Let's Talk About Human Extinction