Your best bet to understand the AI debate (and both sides) is to dig through lesswrong.com . My brief answer is that people fear what they don't understand. An

Your best bet to understand the AI debate (and both sides) is to dig through lesswrong.com . My brief answer is that people fear what they don't understand. And in this case the people shouting out their fears haven't properly and in detail stated their assumptions and definitions. > I believe AI (or AGI) that is better than humans is quite far from done. AI and AGI are wildly different things. My preference is to talk in terms of expert systems rather than the lofty sci-fi acronym. Such as Big Blue, Watson, etc... Personally I think artificial personal assistants will help make the world a much more comfortable (and pleasant) place for those that can afford them. That is until the fourth or fifth generation when they're cheap as paper (or have a limited kind of reproduction).