AI implants could be injected in humans in 20 years: Expert

Artificially intelligent (AI) nano-machines will be injected into humans in 20 years to be used to repair and enhance muscles, cells and bones, as well as enable us to control our environment with thought and gestures, says an IT specialist at IBM.

"We may see nano-machines being injected into our bodies," John McNamara, senior inventor and IT specialist at IBM's Hursley Innovation Centre in Hampshire, UK, was quoted as saying to the Telegraph.co.uk.

"These will provide huge medical benefits, such as being able to repair damage to cells, muscles and bones -- perhaps even augment them," McNamara added.

McNamara said that within two decades, technology may have advanced to such a level that humans and machines are effectively "melded" together, allowing for huge leaps forward in human consciousness and cognition, raising the economic, ethical and social implications of AI.

"Beyond this, utilising technology which is already being explored today, we see the creation of technology that can meld the biological with the technological and so be able to enhance human cognitive capability directly, as well as being able to utilise vast quantities of computing power to augment our own thought processes.

"Using this technology, embedded in ourselves and in our surroundings, we will begin to be able to control our environment with thought and gestures alone," McNamara noted.

However, in a report submitted to the House of Lords Artificial Intelligence Committee, McNamara warned that the rise of AI could bring "huge disruption" in the retail and service sectors which could spike widespread unemployment.

"The immediate concern is that by ceding decisions or control to machines, the humans start accepting their decisions as correct or better than their own and stop paying attention," said Noel Sharkey, professor at the University of Sheffield, who separately shared the evidence to the committee.