The moment that humanity is forced to take the threat of artificial intelligence seriously might be fast approaching, according to futurist and theoretical physicist Michio Kaku.

In an interview with CNBC's "The Future of Us," Kaku drew concern from the earlier-than-expected victory Google's deep learning machine notched this past March, in which it was able to beat a human master of the ancient board game Go. Unlike chess, which features far fewer possible moves, Go allows for more moves than there are atoms in the universe, and thus cannot be mastered by the brute force of computer simulation.

"This machine had to have something different, because you can't calculate every known atom in the universe — it has learning capabilities," Kaku said. "That's what's novel about this machine, it learns a little bit, but still it has no self awareness ... so we have a long way to go."