Intel says Rise of the Machine not till 2050

Movie got it wrong

22 August 2008 10:46 GMT / By Stuart Miles

The Terminator movies suggested that the day the machines would take over was 29 August 1997 and while some people would say they already have, Intel says we shouldn't have to worry about that day coming for another 42 years.

Speaking at it's yearly Intel Developers Forum, Intel's chief technology officer Justin Rattner, has predicted big changes are ahead in social interactions, robotics and improvements in computer’s ability to sense the real world.

Turning away from the latest netbooks and internet-enabled televisions, Rattner said Intel’s research labs are already looking at human-machine interfaces and examining future implications to computing with some promising changes coming much sooner than expected.

"The industry has taken much greater strides than anyone ever imagined 40 years ago", Rattner said. "There is speculation that we may be approaching an inflection point where the rate of technology advancements is accelerating at an exponential rate, and machines could even overtake humans in their ability to reason, in the not so distant future."

Rattner also suggested that we would soon see robots everywhere.

"Robots today are primarily used in the factory environment, designed to perform a single task repeatedly and bolted down. To make robotics personal, robots need to move and manipulate objects in cluttered and dynamic human environments", according to Rattner.

In addition to robots becoming more human-like, Rattner said he believes more innovation will emerge to make human and machine interaction more robust.

Lets just hope he isn't moonlighting at Cyberdyne Systems.