And that's why as a society we're done for. I'm alright Jack and screw everyone else.

yup, survival of the fittest, nature at work.

All AI would need to do to kill off swathes of the human race is to have an accidental breakdown in production of the various immunisation drugs and the now reliant, naturally weakened humans will die off. it's already happening to a certain degree and it won't be too long before we have a massive and deadly influenza epidemic.
Rinse and repeat with the inoculations, it's a very good way to kill off a populous without leaving a trail/finger pointing.

There's already a substantial body of research and support for UBI, and live trials going on around the world - Finland being the most publicised.

In the dystopic automated future however, I think the key word for most people will be 'basic' - and as I said in my original post, the genuine freedom to pursue leisure and happiness will be reserved for the 1%; just as it is now, they'll have all the Kit Kats.

I'll share a KitKat with you pal. PCollinson1990 can have some too but I expect he's dead against chocolate wafer based welfare in his dystopian world

I'll live in the woods, with dreadlocks and a long coat, as seems to be the standard sci-fi uniform for renegade outlaws who refuse to live in a surveilled society; we'll surround our tents and shacks with a giant faraday cage, ban electronics and go totally off-grid - and I'll jury-rig the means of KitKat production and hand them out for free. You're all welcome to a finger - even PCCollinson.

very kind offer, but a faraday cage wont help with wifi/satelletie signals. And I don't eat chocolate from a company that killed Rowntrees either

(anyone else sick of the BetFred add interfering with posting)?

Get an adblocking browser or use the rlfans app. If you can't help yourself then you don't deserve sympathy, survival of the fittest

I'm with you on the killers of Rowntree's btw.

Am I alone in thinking that AI is miles off in any humanity threatening stage and killer robot stories are just media click bait?

I don't for a second think we'll have cyborgs and robots roaming the streets killing people! That is just tabloid click bait. I do however believe that any development of AI is naturally open to advanced hackers, and ultimately abuse.

Just like Facebook, it's all harmless fun until someone sets up a data farming company, harvests the data of millions, then uses it for dubious means.

I agree that we're miles off a threat to humanity in a rise of the machines, physical harm kind of way; I don't think we'll be that far off an existential threat to humanity though - in the sense that exponentially more advanced AI will call into question what it actually means to be human. If a machine intelligence can think, learn, be self-aware and all that jazz, there'll be difficult ethical and philosophical questions to wrestle with about their legal status, rights and standing in a civilised society. If an AI is sentient and aware of itself, can we own it and assign to it all mundane and physical work for example?

They're going to need safe spaces and gender flags. They'll also need to be rewarded the same as the next AI.

It may be a long way off taking over but, it's started and we're all doomed.
Maybe Trump is brighter than we've given him credit for and with him poking the horents nest (Russia) so often, perhaps he's trying to bring about Armageddon, before the cyborgs do take over or, maybe he's one of them ?
That hair "style" has to be covering something and it just may be the screws on the top of his head, one of which is definitely loose