the sci-fi premise would go something like: algorithm becomes too clever, hacks the machine that contains/runs it, starts sending signals over the internet, hac

the sci-fi premise would go something like: algorithm becomes too clever, hacks the machine that contains/runs it, starts sending signals over the internet, hacking other machines, self-replicating, etc. eventually it can create robots, load itself into those, and walk around to create more robots, spaceships, or whatever computes necessary. well, you will notice the process itself doesn't sound so sci-fi. the complicated part is the first part. AIs are not so clever, and we don't even have any idea on how to make them so clever in the first place. if we had and we were stupid enough, it would still be unlikely that the AI could find ways to replicate so easily, because it would probably need impressive hardware to run, not your regular laptop, but you get the idea. but once it "escapes", we are rather ... you know. no real need to worry about these for the moment though, more worrisome are the real algorithms that trade stocks and are already "controlling" our economies (well, you get the point)