Apple founder: Computers will rule the world

COMPUTERS are set to take over from humans, and could render us no more important than ‘family pets’, the cofounder of Apple has warned.

Steve Wozniak, who launched the computer firm with Steve Jobs, said advances in artificial intelligence could backfire on the human race, as he painted a picture of a ‘scary’ future in which companies will be run by computers instead of people.

‘Computers are going to take over from humans, no question,’ Mr Wozniak said, adding: ‘The future is scary and very bad for people. If we build devices to take care of everything for us, eventually they’ll think faster than us and get rid of slow humans to run companies more efficiently.’

Mr Wozniak, who remains an ‘honorary’ employee of Apple, said he spent years dismissing other people’s predictions about computers outsmarting humans, but had changed his mind lately after seeing rapid advances in artificial intelligence.

The technology expert also warned that humans could fall down the pecking order, and become no more important than pets or even ants. He said: ‘Will we be the gods? Will we be the family pets? Or will we be ants that get stepped on? I don’t know about that. But if I’m going to be treated as a pet to these smart machines…well I’m going to treat my pet dog really nice.’