Futurist Michio Kaku: Robots Could ‘Become Dangerous,’ We Will Have to ‘Merge with Them’

Futurist Professor Michio Kaku claimed smart robots could “become dangerous,” and that humans may have to “merge” with machines, during an “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) session on Reddit this week.

“Some people are afraid of this. They think the robots may take over. Well, that’s always a possibility,” declared Kaku. “But, for the next period of time, for decades to come, artificial intelligence is going to create jobs, industries, new opportunities, new fields opening up. But let’s not be naive. At some point, maybe at the end of the century, robots could become dangerous. The tipping point is self-awareness.”

“Right now, robots have the intelligence of a bug… They can barely walk across a room. Simple tasks done by humans – picking up garbage, fixing a toilet, building a house, solving a crime – are way beyond what a robot can do,” he continued. “But, as the decades go by, they will become as smart as a mouse, then rat, then a cat, dog, and monkey… By that point, they might become dangerous and even replace humans, near the end of the century.”

Kaku then added, “So I think we should put a chip in their brain to shut them off if they have murderous thoughts.”

“But what happens centuries from now, when robots and evade even our most sophisticated fail-safe system?” the professor asked. “At that point, I think we should merge with them… This may sound strange to some people, but remember that it is the people of the far future (not us) who will decide how far they want to modify themselves to deal with super smart robots.”

Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington, or like his page at Facebook.