Dr Subhash Kak – a professor in computer engineering – previously warned that advanced machines could "replace humans at literally all jobs".

He said robots will one be able to absorb more information, access it more quickly and compute it into actions "more complex, and yet more logical, than any person ever could".

Now Dr Kak has exclusively told Daily Star Online that one area of the economy that could find itself under threat from AI is aviation.

This comes after we reported how a robot take over could plunge the world into a hellish dystopia.

He told us: "Robots and cognitive machines are already more advanced than humans at most jobs.

"Recognising faces, for example, or analysing traffic on the internet, or making sense of ones likes and dislikes and using that for marketing, or in the flying of the plane.

"They have overtaken humans at intellectual games likes chess."

He referenced reports last year, published in Wired, that jet manufacturer Boeing were targeting the production of jetliners that fly themselves, making the decisions currently made by humans.

Technology already carries out a number of aviation tasks, such as autopilot, but the future could see humans taken out of the equation.