Professor Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk have previously voiced concerns that AI could threaten humanity

The web has democratised information and learning, brought families and loved ones together as well as helped businesses connect and compete in a global economy.

But the internet has a dark side - it hosts underhand dealings, has its very own criminal underbelly, not to mention a rising ‘mob’ culture.

The threat such technological advances pose to society is so serious, there is now a team of Cambridge researchers studying the existential risks.

The Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER) project has been set up in Cambridge to monitor artificial intelligence and technological advances. The web was cited as a catalyst in the Egyptian coup in 2011, for example, while global cyber attacks have the potential to bring down governments

The Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER) project was co-founded by Cambridge philosophy professor Huw Price, cosmology and astrophysics professor Martin Rees and Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn in 2012.

Its mission is to study threats posed by technological advances, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, nanotechnology and climate change.

‘Modern science is well-acquainted with the idea of natural risks, such as asteroid impacts or extreme volcanic events, that might threaten our species as a whole,’ explained Mr Price.

‘It is also a familiar idea that we ourselves may threaten our own existence, as a consequence of our technology and science.

HOW THE INTERNET COULD THREATEN LIFE AS WE KNOW IT 1. Political uprising: The web has been cited as a catalyst for recent government coups and it has the potential to lead to uprisings around the globe. 2. Cyber attacks: Attacks on the infrastructure of governments and global businesses could bring chaos to countries and economies. This in turn could lead to poverty and famine. 3. Control and propaganda: Researchers from the Cambridge Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER) claim that the capabilities of advanced technology place control in ‘dangerously few human hands'. If governments, or even criminals, wanted to, they could control their citizens by restricting information. 4. Dark web: Criminals and terrorists operate on the so-called Deep Web, and this could lead to global wars, spread of terrorism and crime, and could culminate in World War III. 5. Artificial Intelligence: The rise of the web and internet capabilities has also made the prospect of Artificial Intelligence much more prominent. 'Success in creating AI would be the biggest event in human history,’ Professor Stephen Hawking said earlier this year. ‘Unfortunately, it might also be the last, unless we learn how to avoid the risks.’ Advertisement

‘Such home-grown “existential risk” - the threat of global nuclear war, and of possible extreme effects of anthropogenic climate change - has been with us for several decades.

‘However, it is a comparatively new idea that developing technologies might lead - perhaps accidentally, and perhaps very rapidly, once a certain point is reached - to direct, extinction-level threats to our species.’

The researchers’ explain that the capabilities of advanced technology place control in ‘dangerously few human hands'.

During the 2011 Egyptian revolution, many people took to Facebook and Twitter to spread the word and discuss the coup.

A number of people were reportedly ‘recruited’ to join the movement online.

The president was then removed by a coalition, led by the Egyptian army chief General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

In October 2010, Malcolm Gladwell wrote that activism has changed with the introduction of social media, because it is now easier for the powerless to ‘collaborate, coordinate and give voice to their concerns.’

And although the internet didn’t directly bring down the country’s government, it was cited as being a major contributor and catalyst for the action.

If this was seen on a global scale, it has the potential to bring down governments, infrastructure and challenge life as we know it, continued the CESR.

Online cyber attacks could also put global infrastructure under threat.

The costs associated with cyber attacks are increasing as the volume of data stolen rises, and the attacks themselves become more destructive.

Businesses that suffer a cyber attack have increased costs.

During the 2011 Egyptian revolution (pictured), many people took to Facebook and Twitter to spread the word and discuss the coup. A number of people were reportedly ‘recruited’ to join the movement online. If this was seen on a global scale, it has the potential to bring down governments and challenge life as we know it

Online cyber attacks (illustrated) could also put global infrastructure under threat. The costs associated with cyber attacks are increasing as the volume of data stolen rises, and the attacks themselves become more destructive. Businesses that suffer a cyber attack have increased costs

This could have a major impact on global economies, food supplies and energy companies - creating widespread poverty, food shortages, poor health and an increase in crime.

Joe Hancock, Cyber Security Specialist at AEGIS London said: ‘These attacks are now increasingly destructive as we have seen with the recent attack on Sony Entertainment.

'This trend is going to continue, with affected businesses squeezed between a shrinking top-line and rising costs.

'In 2015 we fully expect a business to fail due to the financial consequences of a cyber attack.’

Mr Hancock continued that cyber attacks are the 'new normal' and it is no longer enough to say 'it won’t affect us', 'it wasn’t patchable' or that an attack just wasn’t detected.

The wider cyber security community is also concerned about attacks that may cause real-world impacts on health, safety and the environment, possibly linked to cyber terrorism or on-going conflicts.

GCHQ TECH EXPERTS JOIN POLICE TO SCOUR DARK NET FOR CRIMINALS A specialist unit is being set up by the British government to hunt down paedophiles who are using a hidden part of the internet known as the 'dark net' to share child pornography. The National Crime Agency and the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) will use the latest technology to crackdown on users of the so called dark net, or deep web. Prime minister David Cameron said the new unit is aimed at 'shining a light on the web’s darkest corners' as he announced a package of measures to tackle online child abuse. He said it had become necessary to target the dark net as paedophiles were increasingly using it to communicate with each other and to disguise their identities. The new unit will use new advances of analysing images and communications to trace the 'digital footprints' left by the users who share them. Mr Cameron said: 'The so-called "dark-net" is increasingly used by paedophiles to view sickening images. 'I want them to hear loud and clear, we are shining a light on the web’s darkest corners; if you are thinking of offending there will be nowhere for you to hide. 'Every time someone chooses to view an online image or a video of a child being abused, they are choosing to participate in a horrific crime.' The new unit is intended to focus on the most prolific users of the dark net to begin with. Figures compiled by the National Crime Agency suggest that use of the dark net rose by two thirds in 2012. Advertisement

Cyber attacks perpetrated by groups linked with areas of geopolitical tension, such as the former USSR or contested regions, including the South China Sea, may mean organisations will be caught-up in the fallout of hybrid warfare - facing both physical and cyber attacks.

In the extreme, the web could lead to a third world war, and this could ultimately threaten our existence.

Elsewhere, The Worldwatch Institute’s State of the World 2014 report, recently discussed how the web and digitisation not only play a role on politics and governance, but that it can be used to ‘legislate’ behaviour more than laws can.

‘Consider the controversy caused in late 2013 by a poorly functioning website created to help citizens sign up for health insurance in the US,’ explained the report.

‘Despite the available of other means of accessing the new insurance program (telephone, post and government offices), the website mentioned only the online option on its home page.’

This meant that information was withheld, whether accidentally or on purpose, from citizens about something that was fundamental to themselves, and policy reform.

Tesla found Elon Musk took to Twitter earlier this year (pictured) to warn against the development of intelligent machines. He seems to have been influenced by a book that argues humans are living in a simulation and not the ‘real’ world

Mr Musk also previously claimed that a horrific ‘Terminator-like’ scenario could be created from research into artificial intelligence. He is so worried, he is investing in AI companies, not to make money, but to keep an eye on the technology in case it gets out of hand. A still of the Terminator is pictured

It inadvertently forced people to behave a certain way, and this power was in the hands of the people who controlled the website and the media.

‘A technological mind-set ‘legislates’ behaviour by constraining virtually everyone’s consideration of the tools available for accomplishing an important task to the most ‘sophisticated’ of them, even when the tool is not working.

‘Laws rarely exact such compliance.’

THE DEEP WEB: WHAT IS TOR? Tor - short for The Onion Router - is a matrix of encrypted websites that lets users surf beneath the everyday internet anonymously. It uses numerous layers of security and encryption to render users anonymous online. Normally, file sharing and internet browsing activity can be tracked by law enforcement through each user's unique IP address that can be traced back to an individual computer. The Tor network on the Deep Web hides the IP address and the activity of the user. Most of the web's information is buried far down on dynamically generated sites, unable to be found or seen by traditional search engines - sites or pages don't exist until created as the result of a specific search. An internet search is like dragging a net across the surface of the sea - a great deal of information is caught, but a majority is deep and therefore missed. Advertisement

The part of the internet the public are able to access and view makes up only about 20 per cent of the total web.

The rest is what is known as the ‘dark side’ that accounts for some 80 per cent of the internet.

Also known as the Deep Web, it has existed for more than a decade but came under the spotlight in 2013 after police shutdown the Silk Road website - the online marketplace dubbed the 'eBay of drugs' - and arrested its creator.

But experts warn this has done next to nothing to stem the rising tide of such illicit online exchanges, which are already jostling to fill the gap now left in this unregulated virtual world.

This ‘dark side’, sometimes known as Silk Road 2, is accessed via the Tor browser and allows anonymous access into sites.

It can be a platform for freedom of information and flow of data, particularly for suppressed individuals in politically unstable countries but, equally, has been hijacked by terrorist organisations and other illegal operations such as paedophiles, gun runners and drug lords.

Earlier this month, the government announced plans to work with law enforcement agencies under the new government initiative to crack down on illegal and inappropriate activity on these sites.

The National Crime Agency and the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) will use the latest technology to crackdown on users of the so called dark net, or deep web.

This ‘dark side’ has the potential to organise groups, bring down business and governments and cause havoc.

The rise of the web and internet capabilities has also made the prospect of Artificial Intelligence much more prominent.

This is one topic that the Cambridge risk centre is going to be looking at specifically, but is also being monitored by the likes of Tesla boss Elon Musk.

‘The field of artificial intelligence is advancing rapidly along a range of fronts,’ continued CESR's Mr Price.

‘Recent years have seen dramatic improvements in AI applications like image and speech recognition, autonomous robotics, and game playing; these applications have been driven in turn by advances in areas such as neural networks, search, and the scaling of existing techniques to modern computers and clusters.

Professor Stephen Hawking has previously warned that artificial intelligence has the potential to be the downfall of mankind. 'Success in creating AI would be the biggest event in human history,' he said writing earlier this year. 'Unfortunately, it might also be the last'

‘While the field promises tremendous benefits, a growing body of experts within and outside the field of AI has raised concerns that future developments may represent a major technological risk.

A long-held goal has been the development of human-level general problem-solving ability.

While this has yet to be achieved, many researchers believe it could happen within the next 50 years.

‘As AI algorithms become both more powerful and more general - able to function in a wider variety of ways in different environments - their potential benefits and their potential for harm will increase rapidly,' continued Mr Price.

GOOGLE SETS UP AI ETHICS BOARD TO CURB THE RISE OF THE ROBOTS Google has set up an ethics board to oversee its work in artificial intelligence. The search giant has recently bought several robotics companies, along with Deep Mind, a British firm creating software that tries to help computers think like humans. One of its founders warned artificial intelligence is 'number one risk for this century,' and believes it could play a part in human extinction 'Eventually, I think human extinction will probably occur, and technology will likely play a part in this,' DeepMind’s Shane Legg said in a recent interview. Among all forms of technology that could wipe out the human species, he singled out artificial intelligence, or AI, as the 'number 1 risk for this century.' The ethics board, revealed by web site The Information, is to ensure the projects are not abused. Neuroscientist Demis Hassabis, 37, founded DeepMind two years ago with the aim of trying to help computers think like humans. Advertisement

‘Even very simple algorithms, such as those implicated in the 2010 financial flash crash, demonstrate the difficulty in designing safe goals and controls for AI; goals and controls that prevent unexpected catastrophic behaviours and interactions from occurring.’

‘With the level of power, autonomy, and generality of AI expected to increase in coming years and decades, forward planning and research to avoid unexpected catastrophic consequences is essential.’

This view has been echoed by Mr Musk and Professor Stephen Hawking.

'Success in creating AI would be the biggest event in human history,’ Professor Hawking said earlier this year.

‘Unfortunately, it might also be the last, unless we learn how to avoid the risks.’

In the short and medium-term, militaries throughout the world are working to develop autonomous weapon systems, with the UN simultaneously working to ban them.

‘Looking further ahead, there are no fundamental limits to what can be achieved,’ said Professor Hawking.

‘There is no physical law precluding particles from being organised in ways that perform even more advanced computations than the arrangements of particles in human brains.’

Mr Musk is equally concerned.

He said: ‘I think we should be very careful about artificial intelligence. If I had to guess at what our biggest existential threat is, it’s probably that. So we need to be very careful with artificial intelligence.

‘I’m increasingly inclined to think that there should be some regulatory oversight, maybe at the national and international level, just to make sure that we don’t do something very foolish.

‘With artificial intelligence we’re summoning the demon. You know those stories where there’s the guy with the pentagram, and the holy water, and...he’s sure he can control the demon? Doesn’t work out.’

In August, he warned that AI could to do more harm than nuclear weapons.

Tweeting a recommendation for a book by Nick Bostrom called Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies that looks at a robot uprising, he wrote: ‘We need to be super careful with AI. Potentially more dangerous than nukes.’

Mr Musk has previously claimed that a horrific ‘Terminator-like’ scenario could be created from research into artificial intelligence.

The 42-year-old is so worried, he is investing in AI companies, not to make money, but to keep an eye on the technology in case it gets out of hand.