Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk are among the eminent scientists who fear that intelligent robots could be mankind’s downfall.

And just days after Professor Hawking warned that 'artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race,' a team of British researchers are embarking on a collaborative project to ensure that the autonomous robots we build in the future will make decisions that are ethical and can follow rules.

Robots that can think and act without human intervention are fast moving from fiction to reality.

There are fears that intelligent robots (illustrated) could one day overthrow humans, so a team of British researchers are embarking on a collaborative project to ensure that the autonomous robots we build in the future will make decisions that are ethical and can follow rules

The nuclear, aerospace, manufacturing and agricultural industries are starting to develop autonomous systems that can carry out tasks that are either too difficult or too dangerous for humans, while driverless cars are already with us.

Researchers at the Universities of Sheffield, Liverpool and the West of England, Bristol have set up a new project to address concerns around these new technologies, with the aim of ensuring robots meet industrial standards and are developed responsibly.

The £1.4 million project will run until 2018.

Professor Michael Fisher, principal investigator at Liverpool, said the project will ‘develop formal verification techniques for tackling questions of safety, ethics, legality and reliability across a range of autonomous systems.’

Stephen Hawking has 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 in the Independent. 'Unfortunately, it might also be the last'

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

The news may be a relief to scientists such as Professor Hawking, who last week warned that humanity faces an uncertain future as technology learns to think for itself and adapt to its environment.

Speaking at event in London, the physicist told the BBC: 'The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.'

This echoes claims he made earlier in the year when he said success in creating AI 'would be the biggest event in human history, [but] unfortunately, it might also be the last.'

Last month, Elon Musk, the entrepreneur behind Space-X and Tesla, warned that the risk of ‘something seriously dangerous happening’ as a result of machines with artificial intelligence, could be in as few as five years.

He has previously linked the development of autonomous, thinking machines, to ‘summoning the demon’.

Speaking at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) AeroAstro Centennial Symposium in October, Musk described artificial intelligence as our ‘biggest existential threat’.

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.

Last month, Elon Musk (pictured), the entrepreneur behind Space-X and Tesla, warned that the risk of ‘something seriously dangerous happening’ as a result of machines with artificial intelligence, could be in as few as five years

‘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.

ASIMOV'S THREE LAWS OF ROBOTICS The three ‘laws of robotics’ were devised by sci-fi author Isaac Asimov in a short story he wrote in 1942, called ‘Runaround’. They state: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. Advertisement

As part of the new research project, the University of Liverpool will focus on the development of ‘verification tools’ that will provide mathematical proof about the decisions the intelligent systems will make, allowing experts to check up on future machines’ actions.

Researchers at Bristol Robotics Laboratory (BRL), a collaboration between UWE and the University of Bristol, will work on developing and demonstrating ‘ethical’ robots.

Professor Alan Winfield, of the BRL, explained: ‘If robots are to be trusted, especially when interacting with humans, they will need to be more than just safe.

‘We’ve already shown that a simple laboratory robot can be minimally ethical, in a way that is surprisingly close to Asimov’s famous laws of robotics.

‘We now need to prove that such a robot will always act ethically, while also understanding how useful ethical robots would be in the real world.’

The three ‘laws’ were devised by sci-fi author Isaac Asimov in a short story he wrote in 1942, called ‘Runaround’.

They state that a robot may not injure a human, or allow us to come to harm, must obey orders given by humans – unless breaking the first law – and must protect its own existence where possible.