Steve Wozniak says humans will become robot pets

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak believes we will become the pets of robots in the future after they surpass human intelligence and take over the world.

"They're going to be smarter than us and if they're smarter than us then they'll realise they need us," Wozniak told participants at the Freescale technology forum this week.

"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 filet steak and chicken every night because do unto others'."

Previously, Wozniak said a robot-controlled future would be a scary place for people, with him predicting they would bring about the end of the human race. However, his latest musings suggest he's had a rethink.

Wozniak finished: "[Robots will] be so smart by then that they'll know they have to keep nature, and humans are part of nature. I got over my fear that we'd be replaced by computers. They're going to help us. We're at least the gods originally."

Wozniak's earlier objections put him in the same bracket as some of the leading scientists and technologists of our age.

Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Stephen Hawking have all spoken about the dangers of allowing our wold to be taken over by artificial intelligence.

In fact, Musk went as far as to buy shares in an AI company just so he could monitor it and make sure it wasn't doing anything untoward.

One of the supporters of AI technologies is Eric Horvitz, Microsoft's research lead, who believes artificial intelligence will not indicate the end of humanity.

"I think we will be very proactive in terms of how we field AI systems, and that in the end we'll be able to get incredible benefits from machine intelligence in all realms of life, from science to education to economics to daily life," Horvitz said.

Clare Hopping
Freelance writer

Clare is the founder of Blue Cactus Digital, a digital marketing company that helps ethical and sustainability-focused businesses grow their customer base.

Prior to becoming a marketer, Clare was a journalist, working at a range of mobile device-focused outlets including Know Your Mobile before moving into freelance life.

As a freelance writer, she drew on her expertise in mobility to write features and guides for ITPro, as well as regularly writing news stories on a wide range of topics.