Artificial Intelligence May Doom The Human Race Within A Century, Oxford Professor Says An oxford philosophy professor who has studied threats ranging from nuclear war to superbugs says the biggest danger ofall may be superintelligence. superintelligence is any intellect that outperforms human intellect in every field and Nick Bostrom thinks its most likely form will be a machine artificial intelligence There are two ways anincial intelligence could go, Bostrom argues. It could greatly improve our lives and solve the world's problems. such as disease, hunger and even pain. Or, it could take over and to possibly kill all or many humans. As it stands, the catastrophic scenario is more likely, according Bostrom, who has a background in physics, computational neuroscience and mathematical logie. superintelligence could become extremely powerful and be able to shape the future according to its preferences," Bostrom told me. rhumanity was sane and had our act together globally, the sensible course of action would be lo postpone development of superintelligence until we figure out how lo do so safely." Bostrom, the founding director of oxford's Future or Institute, lays out his concerns in his Humanity new book, Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strutegies. His book makes a harrowing comparison between the fate of horses and humans: Horses were initially complemented by eamiages and ploughs, greatly increased the borse's productivity. Later, horses were substituted for by automobiles and tractors. When horses became obsolete as a source of labor, many were sold off to meatpackers lo be processed into dog food, bone meal, leather. and glue. In the United states, there were about 26 million horses in 1915. By the early 1950a. 2 million renlained. The same dark outcome. Bostrom said, could happen to humans once Al makes our labor and intelligence obsolete.