Alan TuringThe English mathematician is considered the father of AI. He played a major role in cracking the German Enigma machine in WWII. watched anxiously as Colossus Mark I whirred into life. At last Britain had a machine that could help it win the war against Nazi Germany: the world's first programmable, electronic digital computer. It would be invaluable in decoding intercepted radio messages.

Codebreakers at Bletchley ParkThe top-secret base of English codebreakers during World War Two. began using the computer early in 1944. Tomorrow scientists, mathematicians and politicians will gather at that very place for the first Global Summit on AI Safety.

Among them will be two of the three men nicknamed "the godfathers of AI": Professors Yoshua Bengio and Yann LeCun. Earlier this year, Bengio and the third "godfather", Geoffrey Hinton, signed a declaration that AI should be considered as big a threat to humanity as pandemics and nuclear war.¹

But LeCun has called these fears preposterousRidiculous. . "Intelligence has nothing to do with a desire to dominate," he argues.²

These are the top 10 risks that AI poses: 

Tech takeover It could become more intelligent than humans and start running the world independently. If it saw humans as obstacles, it could set about destroying us. 

Threatening weapons AI could be used in an arms race to design new weapons, including biochemical ones and drones that decide for themselves whom they should kill.

Terrorist risks Illegal organisations, or even mad individuals, could use AI to attack people or critical infrastructure.

Election misdirection AI could stir up unrest and undermine democracy by spreading false news or creating deep fakes.

Automation trepidation AI could be used instead of people to carry out many jobs, creating mass unemployment.  

Overdependence tendency We could become dependent on AI systems which are too complicated for humans to understand. Then, if things went badly wrong, we would be unable to put them right.

AI spies Smart devices could relay confidential information about their users to the manufacturers. There are already worries that smart speakers may be eavesdropping in homes that have them. 

Deep-dyed bias AI could be trained to favour people from some groups over others.  

Censorship grip AI could wipe the internet of information on certain subjects and block whole sites.

Crime time Criminals could use AI to mount ransomware attacks, hack into bank accounts and organise scams.

Yes: AI is developing at extraordinary speed. The many different ways it is designed mean that we cannot predict what it will do. One expert points out that it is less regulated than a sandwich shop.

No: According to Yann LeCun, AI is nowhere near posing a threat: "Until we have a basic design for even dog-level AI (let alone human level), discussing how to make it safe is premature."

Or... It is no bad thing if they are. Once humans realise they are in danger of being wiped out, they will have no choice but to behave as well as possible in order to convince the robots of their worth.