[Max Cow Disease]

I'm always interested to hear intelligent folk share their opinions on the future of AI. Whether it's Ray Kurzweil, Elon Musk, Sam Harris...it's going to be an interesting century, particularly with many of the predictions being of the not-so-rosy variety.

A friend of mine who's an adept computer programmer has always been skeptical of the future threats posed by AI given that its scope and capabilities will always be limited by the predefined parameters of human programming, but I don't know. Several prominent figures have suggested it could one day pose a danger, owing to the idea that a "God AI" or runaway AI could theoretically learn and improve itself so rapidly that it could end up looking at us in the same way that we look at insects or microbial life. I guess there are less far-fetched scenarios that would signal negative outcomes for humanity as well, but those aren't as fun to discuss.

In any case, good idea for a thread.