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We are starting to see AI machines that look like they can both think and feel. And they may be thinking better than humans and feeling differently than we expect.

Regardless, at the center of these debates and discussions lies the question: Can machines ever come to life? Is it possible for them to have emotions, morals, consciousness, perhaps even a soul?

It has been said that if AI comes alive it is thanks to its programmers. Somewhere tucked into the future there may be an algorithm that creates a loving, thinking, consciousness. Or even a soul. 

An AI future

In the hi-tech sectors, many of the players are coming together in groups like the Partnership on AI, Machine Intelligence Research Institute, and The Future of Life. The greatest minds of tech meet in these modern-day think tanks to problem solve the worst-case scenario and imagine the amazing benefits of an AI future. 

As AI becomes a more powerful force, more experts, like Elon Musk, are concerned. It’s way past time to answer the mounting questions of ethics, the benefit to humanity, and of course the morality of incorporating AI into our world.

Is Elon Musk right about the dangers of AI? Maybe so. He’s right about human hubris.

"I think generally people underestimate the capability of AI. They sort of think it's a smart human," Musk said in an August talk with Alibaba CEO Jack Ma. "But it's going to be much more than that. It will be much smarter than the smartest human."

“My assessment about why AI is overlooked by very smart people is that very smart people do not think a computer can ever be as smart as they are,” he reiterated in the New York Time article. “And this is hubris and obviously false."

The Future of Life group has an appropriate slogan. “Technology is giving life the potential to flourish like never before…or to self-destruct. Let’s make a difference.” 

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