Are We Close to A Skynet Takeover? (VIDEO)

Experts at the prestigious University of Cambridge will conduct research into the "extinction-level risks" posed to humanity by artificially intelligent robots.

The Cambridge Project for Existential Risk is dedicated to "ensuring that our own species has a long-term future" by studying the risks posed by AI, nanotechnology and biotechnology.

"The scientists said that to dismiss concerns of a potential robot uprising would be "dangerous," reports the BBC.

The project was co-founded by Huw Price, Bertrand Russell Professor of Philosophy at Cambridge, Martin Rees,
Emeritus Professor of Cosmology & Astrophysics at Cambridge, and Jaan Tallinn, the co-founder of Skype.

It also counts amongst its advisers Max Tegmark, Professor of Physics, MIT and George M Church, Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School.

An article written by Tallinn and Price warns that artificially intelligent computers or robots could take over "the speed and direction of technological progress itself," and shape the environment of planet earth to their own ends while displaying about as much concern for humanity as we do for a bug on the windscreen.

Far from being resigned to works as science fiction such as in the Terminator films, the threat posed by a potential future "rise of the robots" has never been closer to reality.

The study echoes the predictions of respected author, inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil, renowned for his deadly accurate technological forecasts.