New Delhi, March 14: Award winning physicist Professor Stephen Hawking, who died on Wednesday, always warned against Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its growing domince over humanity. “Earth is becoming too small and humanity is bound to self-destruct, with AI replacing us as the domint being on the planet,” he told wired.com in November 2017. “I fear that AI may replace humans altogether. If people design computer viruses, someone will design AI that improves and replicates itself. This will be a new form of life that outperforms humans,” Hawking said. The theoretical physicist kept on saying in the past that that developments in AI have been so great that the machines will one day be more domint than human beings. He noted that a new space programme should be humanity’s top priority “with a view to eventually colonising suitable planets for human habitation”. “I believe we have reached the point of no return. Our earth is becoming too small for us, global population is increasing at an alarming rate and we are in danger of self-destructing,” Hawking warned.