What would we do without science-fiction futures? It would certainly be a lot harder to explain the potential threat of artificial intelligence to human society without the armoury of doomsday storylines that have permeated the genre since Karel Čapek gave us the word 'robot' for obedient smart automaton, which went on to kill off most of humanity.
If we are not hunted by the self-aware Skynet in the Terminator franchise or turned into the most inefficient batteries ever conceived we are imprisoned forever for our own protection only to be saved because it turns out that despite being superintelligent, the machine blows a fuse when it is introduced by some pesky human to some logical incompatibility that sends it into an infinite loop.
If you were writing open letters and giving interviews on the risks of AI, you would find it tough to avoid painting these pictures. Most of the people writing and signing open letters calling for controls over...