Our robot overlords will take over in 100 YEARS: Stephen Hawking warns computers could control humans within a century

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We may be facing a robot uprising with artificial intelligence capable of outsmarting humans in the next century.

This is according to Professor Stephen Hawking who claims that rather than being concerned about who controls AI, we should be worried if AI can be controlled at all.

His comments were made today at the Zeitgeist 2015 conference in London, and follows a previous warning that artificial intelligence could spell the end for humanity. 

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We may be facing a robot uprising with artificial intelligence capable of outsmarting humans in the next century. This is according to Professor Stephen Hawking who claims that rather than being concerned about who controls AI, we should be worried if AI can be controlled at all

'Computers will overtake humans with AI at some within the next 100 years,' he said, according to a report in TechWorld. 

'When that happens, we need to make sure the computers have goals aligned with ours.'

'Our future is a race between the growing power of technology and the wisdom with which we use it.'

Earlier this year, Hawking signed an open letter with Elon Musk arguing AI development should not go on uncontrolled.

The letter said that without safeguards on intelligent machines, mankind could be heading for a dark future.

In November, Elon Musk, the entrepreneur behind Space X, warned that the risk of 'something seriously dangerous happening' as a result of machines with artificial intelligence, could be in as few as five years

The document, drafted by the Future of Life Institute, warned scientists to head off risks that could wipe out mankind.

The authors say there is a 'broad consensus' that AI research is making good progress and would have a growing impact on society.

'The potential benefits are huge, since everything that civilisation has to offer is a product of human intelligence; we cannot predict what we might achieve when this intelligence is magnified by the tools AI may provide, but the eradication of disease and poverty are not unfathomable,' the authors write.

But it issued a stark warning that research into the rewards of AI had to be matched with an equal effort to avoid the potential damage it could wreak.

For instance, in the short term, it claims AI may put millions of people out of work.

In the long term, it could have the potential to play out like a fictional dystopias in which intelligence greater than humans could begin acting against their programming.

'Our AI systems must do what we want them to do,' the letter says. 

This echoes claims Stephen Hawking made earlier in the year when he said success in creating AI 'would be the biggest event in human history, [but] unfortunately, it might also be the last.'

In November, Elon Musk, the entrepreneur behind Space-X and Tesla, warned that the risk of 'something seriously dangerous happening' as a result of machines with artificial intelligence, could be in as few as five years.

He has previously linked the development of autonomous, thinking machines, to 'summoning the demon'.

Speaking at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) AeroAstro Centennial Symposium in October, Musk described artificial intelligence as our 'biggest existential threat'.

He said: 'I think we should be very careful about artificial intelligence. If I had to guess at what our biggest existential threat is, it's probably that. So we need to be very careful with artificial intelligence.

'I'm increasingly inclined to think that there should be some regulatory oversight, maybe at the national and international level, just to make sure that we don't do something very foolish.

'With artificial intelligence we're summoning the demon. You know those stories where there's the guy with the pentagram, and the holy water, and … he's sure he can control the demon? Doesn't work out.'