Artificial intelligence (AI), like many technologies has come a long way and there seems to be no end in sight. We see it everyday on most household appliances, in cars, computers, cameras, phones, the list goes on and on.

AI has been a very useful tool, it helps us communicate, makes our lives easier, helps science advance, and even saves lives. But is making AI look like, and act like us with even higher intelligence going too far?      Scientists are still far from making AI think, learn, understand, and have emotions like humans, but that does seem to be the ultimate goal. Many people believe it will never happen. But look at past technologies, many \"science fiction\" gadgets, aren\'t science fiction at all anymore.     

Whether scientists do or don\'t accomplish their goals, the questions still remain, is it going too far? Is it really necessary to do so? Is it dangerous? The first 2 questions will reveal themselves in the future. As for the latter, it seems quite apparant that, yes, it is dangerous.      Just imagine this scenario: A robot, software, or some form of AI that is connected to a network of computers. It may be directly linked to the internet, or linked to other computers which are linked to the internet. This AI is at least advanced enough to have free will, learn, and adapt. It won\'t even matter if it has yet achieved human intelligence. Being able to do pretty much what it wants, it has the capability of causing chaos worldwide.

If 1 human is mad and wants revenge on the whole world, they can generally only cause a small amount of trouble for people around them, and often will end up in jail for causing too much. If a computer gets "mad" and wants "revenge", it can use the internet to cause trouble across the globe and beyond.This would seem to be a pretty dangerous scenario.     

Now, you may be thinking, we aren\'t that dumb, there would be safeguards, and it would only have limited free will. That may or may be true, but nothing is ever perfect. Humans make mistakes, and nothing is fool proof.

Here's another scenario. Scientists create AI that learns, and adapts and is, or has the potential to become as smart as a human. This AI has been tested for years, all possible precautions taken, rules are hard coded into the software, every action is monitored, and the AI has only a limited and safe amount of access to the internet. It can NOT do anything "bad" or illegal. Does this make it safe? Of course not! The threat now becomes humans. They can hack into it from a remote place, someone can break into the lab, maybe one of the scientists working on the project has a grudge and wants revenge on something or someone.

Now we have a scenario where a human could remove or change these hard coded rules, or give the AI permission to do anything on the internet, anywhere it pleases. Once again, disaster!      In

conclusion, it seems the human race has to step back and look into the future, look at the consequences of some of our actions, before they happen. If AI advances far enough it could become the most dangerous of our creations. A computer that can control virtually any other computer sytem on earth hooked to the internet or other network, and make those computers do what it wants. We could quickly have millions of computers spreading viruses, turning off power, firing missles, shutting down satellites, causing panic, wars, deaths.      

Computers controlling the world, science fiction? You be the judge...