Britain's greatest living scientist is convinced cyborgs will rule the planet by the end of this century.

James Lovelock is predicting a world where artificial intelligence takes control because they will be able to think tens of thousands of times faster than us.

The prospect of cyborgs — part human part machine — taking over has long been the subject of nightmarish science fiction such as "2001 Space Odyssey" and "The Terminator."

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But Mr. Lovelock, who will turn 100 next Saturday, claims although they will rule the roost, they will not kill us.

He told the Mail: “The idea that they will replace us is silly. We would co-exist with them just as we co-exist with plants.”

In fact, he believes, they will need us and we will co-exist with them, although as subordinates.

He said: “I get very irritated when people think of our successors as being convenient butlers or slaves that will do everything we want and they are under our control.

“They will view us much in the way that we view plants – slower.

“We are now preparing to hand the gift of knowing on to new forms of intelligent beings. Do not be depressed by this.

“We have played our part.”

Mr. Lovelock believes the rise of the cyborgs to becoming the dominant species is part of evolution.

And since the fitness survive, it will be them who inherit the world.

Former Google and Microsoft exec Kai-Fu Lee believes robots will steal half of all current jobs in the world within 15 years.

Workers in many fields face a crisis "akin to that faced by farmers during the industrial revolution", says former Google and Microsoft exec Kai-Fu Lee.

This story originally appeared in The Sun.