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A recent Fox news article (read article here) reported that physicist Stephen Hawking is worried about the development of artificial intelligence, or AI for short.[1] Hawking is apparently worried that if advances in AI continue the human race could one day become extinct. He is quoted as saying, "The development of full artificial intelligence (AI) could spell the end of the human race." The article also quotes Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla Motors. Musk is said to have told an audience at MIT that we need to be "very careful" with artificial intelligence. Fox reports that Musk "called for national and international oversight of the field".
The idea of machines becoming more advanced than humans is great science fiction. It is fun and somewhat scary to contemplate the ramifications of machines being able to think for themselves. But will AI be the end of mankind? Not if you believe Bible prophecy. Man will not be destroyed by machines, or nuclear holocaust, or plagues. Man will continue until Christ returns and judges each human individual and assigns him his eternal destiny, Heaven or Hell. So AI will not wipe out the human race. Humans were made for eternity. The redeemed will spend eternity in the presence of the Savior they trusted for salvation. The condemned will spend eternity separated from the Savior they rejected.
ENDNOTES:
[1] Tanya Lewis, Stephen Hawking: Artificial intelligence could end human race, December 3, 2014, http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2014/12/03/stephen-hawking-artificial-intelligence-could-end-human-race/ Accessed on December 3, 2014