Below, you will see a robot rejecting the command of a human based on perceived harm to itself. That's right: the robot is able to assess a situation and determine whether or not it will be good or bad for its well-being. This is a huge step, if not the manifestation of, toward a machine that is self-conscious and able to think for itself.
This might sound really cool, but here's the problem with this. In a book entitled Our Final Invention: Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era, James Barrat argues that robot consciousness will hit a tipping point when it perceives that humans are not out for its best interest, and, as such, will turn against them--indeed, the robots will perceive the human being as a threat. And once that happens, they will direct their exponentially growing intelligence against us, hence subjugating, enslaving, or even annihilating us.
In the video below, MIT engineer gives a command for the robot to step forward toward the end of a table. The robot balks stating that the path is not safe. The human restates the command, and the robot reasons that it's not safe. Only when the human states he will catch it, the robot ventures forth. Watching it for yourself is shocking:
The robot looks cute, but imagine it as large as the man standing next to him, with nano-skin and intelligence several orders of magnitude greater than his (and given that the man is programming AI, it's more than safe to say he's intellectually no slouch).
Here's a question for the professor, and all others building AI with consciousness: Why are you creating beings whose intelligence will inevitably subjugate us? A further question: In whose interest are you building them? For some higher purpose, or your own glory?
On the screen, a tiny robot; in reality, a major tipping point for the future of humanity--and, evidently, robots.
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