Stephen Hawking: Humankind is still greedy, stupid and greatest threat to Earth

Professor Stephen Hawking says pollution and stupidity are still the biggest threats to humankind. He also expressed his concerns over human greed and the use of artificial intelligence in warfare.

 During an interview on Larry King Now,  Stephen said, “we have certainly not become less greedy or less stupid” in our treatment of the environment over the past decade."

He further added, “Six years ago, I was warning about pollution and overcrowding, they have gotten worse since then. The population has grown by half a billion since our last interview, with no end in sight.

 “At this rate, it will be eleven billion by 2100. Air pollution has increased by 8 percent over the past five years. More than 80 percent of inhabitants of urban areas are exposed to unsafe levels of air pollution.

“The increase in air pollution and the emission of increasing levels of carbon dioxide. Will we be too late to avoid dangerous levels of global warming?”

 Hawking went on to express his concerns about the future of artificial intelligence technologies.

He said: “Governments seem to be engaged in an AI arms race, designing planes and weapons with intelligent technologies. The funding for projects directly beneficial to the human race, such as improved medical screening, seems a somewhat lower priority.

 “I don’t think that advances in artificial technology will necessarily be benign. Once machines reach the critical stage of being able to evolve themselves, we cannot predict whether their goals will be the same as ours.”