Scientists have begun what they say will be a century-long study of the effects of artificial intelligence on society, including on the economy, war and crime, officials atStanford Universityannounced this week.

The project, hosted by the university, is unusual not just because of its duration but because it seeks to track the effects of these technologies as they reshape the roles played by human beings in a broad range of endeavours.

"My take is that A.I. is taking over," said Sebastian Thrun, a well-known roboticist who led the development of Google's self-driving car. "A few humans might still be 'in charge', but less and less so."

Artificial intelligence describes computer systems that perform tasks traditionally requiring human intelligence and perception. In 2009, the president of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, Eric Horvitz, organised a meeting of computer scientists in California to discuss the possible ramifications of A.I. advances. The group concluded that the advanceswere largely positiveand lauded the "relatively graceful" progress.

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But now, in the wake of recent technological advances in computer vision, speech recognition and robotics, scientists say they are increasingly concerned that artificial intelligence technologies may permanently displace human workers,roboticise warfareand make of Orwellian surveillance techniques easier to develop, among other disastrous effects.

Dr. Horvitz, now the managing director of the Redmond, Washington, campus of Microsoft Research, last year approached John Hennessy, a computer scientist and president of Stanford University, about the idea of a long-term study that would chart the progress of artificial intelligence and its effect on society. Dr. Horvitz and wife, Mary Horvitz, agreed to fund the initiative, called the One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence.

In an interview, Dr. Horvitz said he was unconvinced by recent warnings that superintelligent machines were poised to outstrip human control and abilities. Instead, he believes these technologies will have positive and negative effects on society.

"Loss of control of A.I. systems has become a big concern," he said. "It scares people." Rather than simply dismiss these dystopian claims, he said, scientists instead must monitor and continually evaluate the technologies.

"Even if the anxieties are unwarranted, they need to be addressed," Dr. Horvitz said.

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100-year study to examine effects of artificial intelligence