Is Google Turning into “Skynet” From Terminator?

By: | May 2nd, 2014

Google has come a long way as a company. What started out as a mere search engine algorithm has, over time, grown to be the biggest name and most-used site on the Internet.

In Google’s quest to take over the world, the company makes is going into some rather interesting investments. Since 2010, Google has been buying companies left and right, about 1 per week and more than 100 to date now, most of them being software and hardware companies like ITA software for $625 million, Waze GPS software for $966 million and Motorola for a whopping $12.5 billion. But these aren’t even the biggest investments.

In the last few months, Google has bought about 5 different robotics companies, including Boston Dynamics and Nest Labs INC, as well as DeepMind (an artificial intelligence company) and a quantum computer company as well.

Could we be seeing a real life Skynet in our future? In case you’re not familiar, Skynet is the living AI system from the Terminator movies that does its best to rub out those pesky humans.

From what it looks like, Google is laying down billions to be on the front line of the robotics industry, and it’s a wise investment too as we will begin to see robotics implemented more and more into our everyday lives. Let’s just hope AI doesn’t decide our fate should be extermination.

Austin Miller

I am an aspiring physicist, with an interest in art and technology.

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