Stephen Hawking: Artificial intelligence could be humanity's greatest disaster

British physicist Stephen Hawking has warned that the creation of powerful artificial intelligence may turn out to be "the worst thing ever to happen to humanity" despite its potential benefits.

The world-renowned physicist has often been cautious about AI, raising concerns that humanity could be the architect of its own destruction if it creates a superintelligence with a will of its own.

Speaking at the opening of the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (LCFI) at Cambridge University, he was also quick to highlight the positives that AI research can bring.

Stephen Hawking -- Getty Images

Hawking praised the creation of the academic institute dedicated to researching the future of intelligence as "crucial to the future of our civilisation and our species." The institute will attempt to tackle some of the open-ended questions raised by the rapid pace of development in AI research.

"The potential benefits of creating intelligence are huge. We cannot predict what we might achieve when our own minds are amplified by AI," Hawkings was quoted as saying by 'The Guardian'.

"Perhaps with the tools of this new technological revolution, we will be able to undo some of the damage done to the natural world by the last one industrialisation," he said.