When everything’s computer

IF YOU have insomnia, you might as well read this new report on artificial intelligence (AI) called AI 2027. By the end of it, you’ll be too terrified to sleep, anyway.

Released by the non-profit research group AI Futures Project earlier this month, this report forecasts how mankind might be wiped out by superintelligent robots in 2030 through a string of fictional but plausible events.

The report gets its name from the year 2027, in which the authors envision AI becoming “adversarially misaligned” with humans’ long-term goals. It is at this juncture that mankind reaches a “branch point”, at which we make the fateful decision to either continue down this path of acceleration, or to slow down and reassess AI development.