United Kingdom, Feb. 13 -- Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has warned artificial intelligence (AI) could have serious consequences for society if the technology falls into the wrong hands.

The tech billionaire - who headed up Google from 2001 to 2015 - admitted he was concerned machine-learning algorithms could pose "extreme risks" to innocent people if terrorists or "rogue states" chose to utilise the technology for nefarious purposes.

In an interview with BBC Radio 4, Schmidt said: "Think about North Korea, or Iran, or even Russia, who have some evil goal. This technology is fast enough for them to adopt that they could misuse it and do real harm."

The tech boss added AI systems could be used to create "a bad biological attack from so...