AS SCREEN villains go, you won’t find any more sinister than a dark-hearted
computer with a mind of its own. From the self-aware defence computers that
enslaved the human race in the 1960s sci-fi classic The Forbin Project
to the anti-heroes of the Terminator movies, intelligent machines are
undoubtedly things to be wary of.
So is it time to start worrying? Around the world, groups of researchers are
planning to give intelligence not just to one or two computers, but to the
millions that make up the Internet. It is, they say, the first step towards
turning the Web into…
