Humanity may lose effective control over artificial intelligence (AI) within five years, according to experts from UK-based Alan Turing Institute.

"There is a realistic possibility that ‘superintelligent’ AI systems will emerge in the next five years, which exceed human abilities across almost all important cognitive tasks," the report says. "If AI systems devise strategies that institutions cannot adequately evaluate and act faster than organisations can respond, substantive human control could disappear."

At the same time, authors emphasize that this is "a possibility to plan against, not a prediction."