Steve Wozniak: Robots will make humans their pets

Nurturing, not destroying will be in the AI nature

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has delivered his views on the growth of artificial intelligence and a push for robotics, dismissing fears about a self-made apocalypse and instead suggesting that our creations will look to nurture and protect us.

This is not the view shared by everybody, and robots and artificial intelligence are seen as a huge threat to humanity in some quarters. Not so with Wozniak, who thinks that the machines will look after humans in much the same way that people look after dogs.

"They're going to be smarter than us and if they're smarter than us then they'll realise they need us," he said at the Freescale technology forum, according to The Guardian.

"We want to be the family pet and be taken care of all the time. I got this idea a few years ago and so I started feeding my dog fillet steak and chicken every night because ‘do unto others'."

This is a change of view and a change of mind for industry veteran Wozniak, who previously called the growth of such smart technology ‘scary'.

Wozniak was not alone in worrying about the rise of the robot, Elon Musk is also a concerned citizen, as is Bill Gates.

"I am in the camp that is concerned about super intelligence. I agree with Elon Musk and some others on this and don't understand why some people are not concerned," said the Microsoft man during a Reddit Q&A in January.

"First, the machines will do a lot of jobs for us and not be super intelligent. That should be positive if we manage it well. A few decades after that, though, the intelligence is strong enough to be a concern."

However at a roundtable discussion V3 attended in May, panellists tried to put faith back into the machines and dismiss fears that they will replace people in the workplace and in society.

"The more intelligent things we make that can take away acts of production, where we can improve efficiency, the better," said CEO of lighting firm Osram Innoventure, Timon Rupp.

"I think these things can take away basic mundane tasks, [but] they can never be creative. You will always need a human for this. So, if anything, the moves will change humans' place and types of work."