We all know that the world is being transformed by technology, but a leading artificial intelligence expert has made a series of predictions that put these changes into harsh perspective.

In his new book, It's Alive!: Artificial Intelligence from the Logic Piano to Killer Robots , Professor Toby Walsh paints a horrifying picture of life in 2050.

From autonomous vehicles to robot managers, humans will be at the mercy of artificially intelligent computers that will control almost every aspect of our lives.

As people's role in society diminishes, they will retreat further and further into virtual worlds, were they will be able to live out their darkest fantasies without fear of recrimination.

"By 2050, the year 2000 will look as quaintly old-fashioned as the horse drawn era of 1900 did to people in 1950," said Walsh, who is professor of artificial intelligence at the University of New South Wales in Australia.

Here are some of his most bone-chilling predictions about life in 2050:

Work is already underway to build cars that can drive themselves, but by 2050, Professor Walsh predicts that humans will be banned from driving althogether.

The vast majority of road accidents are caused by human error, he argues, so autonomous vehicles will make the roads inherently safer and less congested.

As self-driving cars become more ubiquitous, most people will lose their driving skills, and street parking will disappear.

Eventually, ships, planes and trains will also become autonomous, allowing goods to be transported all over the world without human intervention.

"If we can take the human out of the loop, we can make our roads much safer," said Professor Walsh.

As computers become more "intelligent", AI systems will increasingly manage how you work - from scheduling your tasks and approving holidays to monitoring and rewarding your performance.

They could even be put in charge of hiring and firing employees, looking at qualifications and skill sets to match people with jobs.

Professor Walsh points out that matching people with jobs is no more complicated than matching people with each other - something that we already rely on dating sites to do for us.

However, he admits there are some decisions that machines should not be allowed to make.

"We will have to learn when to say to computers: 'Sorry, I can't let you do that,'" he said.

If you're not answering to a computer, then you've probably been replaced by one.

Robots are already replacing humans in many factories and customer service roles, but by 2050, the same technology will have eliminated many middle-class "white collar" jobs.

The news will be written by artificially intelligent computers and presented by avatars and chatbots, which will tailor content to viewers' personal preferences.

Robots will surpass athletes on the sports field, exhibiting greater speed, accuracy and stamina than their human counterparts, and data scientists will be some of the best paid members of football clubs.

Even doctors will be largely replaced by AI physicians that will continually monitor your blood pressure, sugar levels, sleep and exercise, and record your voice for signs of a cold, dementia or a stroke.

"Our personal AI physician will have our life history, it will know far more about medicine than any single doctor, and it will stay on top of all the emerging medical literature," Professor Walsh said.

As society becomes less and less reliant on human input, people will become increasingly absorbed in virtual worlds that merge the best elements of Hollywood and the computer games industry.

Viewers will have complete control over the course of events, and avatars can be programmed to act and talk like anyone they choose - including long-dead celebrities like Marilyn Monroe.

However, there will be increasing concern about the seductive nature of these virtual worlds, and the risk of addicts abandoning reality in order to spend every waking moment in them.

They could also give people the opportunity to behave in distasteful or illegal ways, or live out their darkest fantasies without fear of recrimination.

"This problem will likely trouble our society greatly," Professor Walsh said. "There will be calls that behaviours which are illegal in the real world should be made illegal or impossible in the virtual."

Governments already rely heavily on hacking and cyber surveillance to gather intelligence about foreign enemies, but they will increasingly use these tools to carry out attacks.

Artificial intelligence will quickly surpass human hackers, and the only defence will be other AI programs, so governments will be forced to enter a cyber arms race with other nation states.

As these tools make their way onto the dark web and into the hands of cyber criminals, they will also be used to attack companies and financial institutions.

"Banks will have no choice but to invest more and more in sophisticated AI systems to defend themselves from attack," said Professor Walsh.

Humans will become further and further removed from these crimes, making tracking down the perpetrators increasingly difficult for law enforcement authorities.

If you thought that death would be sweet relief from this dystopian vision of the future, you can think again.

In 2050, humans will will live on as artificially intelligent chatbots after they die, according to Professor Walsh.

These chatbots will draw from social media and other sources to mimic the way you talk, recount the story of your life and comfort your family when you die.

Some people might even give their chatbot the task of reading their will, settling old scores, or relieving grief through humour.

This will of course raise all kinds of ethical questions, such as whether humans have a right know if they're interacting with a computer rather than a real person, and who can switch off your bot after you die.

"It will be an interesting future," said Professor Walsh.

Read the rest here:

Six disturbing predictions about how artificial intelligence will transform life on Earth by 2050 - Mirror.co.uk