Robots are coming, but human jobs are safe

A new wave of artificial intelligence (AI) could fundamentally change the world, with driverless cars navigating through traffic jams, celebrity avatars chatting with fans on Twitter and robot caregivers and companions in nursing homes.

This is the far-off future as presented by Pulitzer-winning New York Times tech reporter John Markoff in his new book, "Machines of Loving Grace," in which the longtime observer of Silicon Valley discusses how humans can cope with the advent of the AI era.

"In the coming years, artificial intelligence and robotics will have an impact on the world more dramatic than the changes personal computing and the Internet have brought in the past three decades," Markoff writes. In an interview with Xinhua in Beijing, Markoff said people should reflect on whether machines will steal human jobs and whether they can be trusted and given autonomy.

Some changes are right around the corner. Markoff said the mankind might soon face robots that can mimic human emotions convincingly. "Imagine a Jennifer Lawrence avatar on Facebook or WeChat that can chat with you all day," he said, citing software developed by an Israeli company to emulate celebrities.

Markoff said technology will make use of people's anthropomorphizing tendencies to treat everything as human, "these robots can easily fool us into believing we are dealing with real people -- a worrisome trend in the writer's eyes."

"You tend to trust these machines, but you don't know what their motives or goals are," Markoff said, pointing to new social problems that could arise when socially astute robots are employed, for instance, by the advertising world to sell products.