The Hitchhiker's Guide to Artificial Intelligence

Should we develop machines with human intelligence and emotion, like Marvin the paranoid android in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? How would such machines affect human relationships? Share your views on artificial intelligence with humanoid and android experts.

For more than 30 years, science fiction has predicted the existence of artificially intelligent machines that can think and feel like humans. Most of us use limited forms of artificial intelligence in our computer games, car navigation systems or Internet search engines.

Now scientists are trying to develop computers and robots that seem to show human intelligence and emotions. But will science ever be able to create machines like Marvin the paranoid android and Deep Thought, the supercomputer in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? And if this is possible, should it be allowed?

Join our panellists to discuss what makes us 'human' and why these characteristics are so hard to create artificially. What motivates scientists to create artificial intelligence? What roles do you think such machines should have in our society and how should they be treated?