Ian Sample speaks with Prof Max Tegmark about the advance of AI, the future of life on Earth, and what happens if and when a ‘superintelligence’ arrives

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In 2014, a new research and outreach organisation was born in Boston. Calling itself The Future of Life Institute, its founders included Jaan Tallinn - who helped create Skype - and a physicist from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. That physicist was Professor Max Tegmark.

With a mission to help safeguard life and develop optimistic visions of the future, the Institute has focused largely on Artificial Intelligence (AI). Of particular concern is the potential for AI to leapfrog humans and achieve so-called “superintelligence” – something discussed in depth in Tegmark’s latest book Life 3.0. This week Ian Sample asks the physicist and author what would happen if we did manage to create superintelligent AI? Do we even know how to build human-level AI? And with no sign of computers outsmarting us yet, why talk about it now?