Is the fear of A.I. justified?

There are number of intellectual people today that have expressed a fear of the growth of A.I without some over site. .I have not paid a great deal of attention to their position although I respect the individuals who are questioning this research.

That was until this headline came to me today: "New 'moonshot challenge' at Harvard aims for giant leap in A.I.". This article, in Computerworld, goes on to say:

"Humanity has big hopes for artificial intelligence, but in reality machines have a long way to go to catch up with the human brain. Enter Harvard University, which has just won a $28 million grant to change all that."

That is a nice grant and the subject is interesting unless you realize:

 The grant was awarded by The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA), part of the U.S. government's Office of the Director of National Intelligence

In the same directory at Computerworld there is another story that fits along with this one; "U.S. military wants to create cyborg soldiers".

Hmm....I think we need to review the objectives of our government and what other potential outcomes could result from rushing into this race for A.I. in warfare that could be used against us. We would be naive to think that everybody in our government is there for our best interest. Maybe, maybe not. Do we know?

From another perspective look into "Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk, and Bill Gates Warn About Artificial Intelligence" from the Observer.

Something to think about for Saturday beside shoveling snow.