Robots set to become even smarter in 2017 and begin to teach themselves clever new tricks

THE next year will see robots begin to join forces to collaborate in unprecedented new ways, experts have predicted.

British academics have predicted the rise of a global system called "the internet of robots" which will let machines interact and communicate on an international scale.

Although robots are currently too primitive to pose any major threat to humanity, the development of new forms of communication marks the beginning of a world where machines begin to teach each other how to perform tasks and share their knowledge across "cloud" computer systems which can be accessed from anywhere on Earth.

Tom Garner, a research fellow at Portsmouth University's School of Creative Technologies, said: "These systems allow robots that have been optimised for different tasks to work on specific problems individually, but to pass solutions between each other.

"The robots use the cloud to share the data, enabling it to be analysed by any other robot or intelligence system also connected to the same network.

"One robot teaches something to another, who in turn develops it and passes it forward in a collaborative effort that could massively increase the learning potential and connectivity of machines."

This idea is related to a development called the Internet of Things, which allows the "connection of millions of ordinary devices from cameras to kettles to the internet".

But once robots become cleverer than humans, they could build a powerful and secret network which allows them to outsmart and even wipe out our species.

Professor Stephen Hawking recently said humanity could be brutally finished off by “rogue” robots which are too strong for us to defeat.

The legendary boffin is one of the most prominent critics of the unrestrained development of artificial intelligence, because he fears super-smart machines could end up turning on their human creators and sending us the way of the dodo.

“Once machines reach a critical stage of being able to evolve themselves we cannot predict whether their goals will be the same as ours,” the professor said in June 2016.
“Artificial intelligence has the potential to evolve faster than the human race.

“We need to ensure AI is designed ethically, with safeguards in place.

“I don’t think advances in artificial intelligence will necessarily be benign."

Could next year be the beginning of an apocalyptic rise of the robots? We'll have to wait and find out.