Homo sapiens, as a species, is programmed to anticipate death, disaster and apocalypse. The monster in the mere, the ague that comes from the east, the flood that wipes out all living creatures outside the Ark. The reason children – and adults in horror movies – are scared of the dark is because darkness is where predators strike. We have a sensible evolutionary fear of things that go bump in the night.

For thousands of years it was possible to argue this primal fear of apocalypse was overwrought. No matter what humans did, or did not do, we were incapable of destroying ourselves and anything that might destroy us in toto – like the comet that erased the dinosaurs – was simultaneously so rare and so beyond our ability to resist that it was pointless worrying.

That mindset was progressively challenged in the 20th century. World War One showed that mankind could kill millions in months, for no obvious reason. World War Two gave us nuclear weapons and the very real ability to kill almost everyone in hours.

Even then, humans remained in control of what happened on Earth. We have not seen a global conflagration since 1945. Treaties have – to date – successfully prevented nuclear war and the long winter that would follow.

But now we face a new peril – one we created, but which is conceptually beyond our control. That is, of course, AI. We have created Gollum, the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, the Monster of Frankenstein, and there are plenty of experts who believe it could lead to our end. AI scientists........

© The Spectator