10 Signs That We're Headed For The Robot Uprising

3. Elon Musk And Stephen Hawking Signed An Open Letter To Prevent The Robot Uprising

Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking know a thing or two about technology, which is why it's probably a bad sign that they're both concerned about the possibility of a robot uprising.

The pair were amongst more than a thousand signatories on an open letter presented at the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Buenos Aires which called for a ban on "offensive autonomous weapons."

The letter warns that "autonomous weapons have been described as the third revolution in warfare, after gunpowder and nuclear arms," and that their development could lead to an all out arms race. You don't need to be the CEO of Tesla to know that creating ever smarter, deadlier and more autonomous weapons in the pursuit of military dominance is a recipe for disaster.

Equipping robots with the ability to kill and the ability to think for themselves may sound like a stupid idea, but it is one that is being genuinely entertained by many different world powers. The only way to stop it is to ban it before it begins.