Professor Duncan McDuie-Ra says robots taking jobs and artificial intelligence making decisions for people is a reality that "is very immediate".
"This stuff is now, not 10 or 20 years away," the University of Newcastle academic said.
Internet banking, online chatbots and apps that predict what music we like were all examples of artificial intelligence, he said, which is technology defined by its ability to do "more and more of what humans do".
The university's "humanoid" robot NUgus can recognise faces, play soccer and is being trained to assist train drivers. Professor McDuie-Ra's own research, however, is not concerned with how robots can emulate people, but why we are bothering to develop artificial intelligence in the first place.
"Humans can already do these things and there are a lot of humans," he said.
That's one of the queries four professors, including McDuie-Ra, will be thrashing out at a public panel discussion on "artificial intelligence and the future of humanity" to be held at Newcastle's City Hall on Thursday afternoon.
University of Newcastle's vice chancellor and roboticist Professor Alex Zelinksy, New Zealand philosopher Professor Nicholas Agar and Canberra-based historian Professor Marnie Hughes-Warrington will bring their expertise in AI to discuss its societal impacts, present and future.
Professor McDuie-Ra, who is a sociologist, said artificial intelligence was being pursued for a variety of reasons, one being that many people believe it will make the world better. Another reason is that there is a market for it.
"That means there's funding for research, and people willing to get involved."
Professor Duncan McDuie-Ra said his studies, which focus on the impacts of AI in the "back roads" of globalisation, showed evidence of benefits and drawbacks of the "mass disruption" of AI.
Drones were delivering blood supplies to remote hospitals in Tanzania, and new agricultural technology was assisting farmers in rural areas where there was a shortage of labour due to immigration to cities, Professor McDuie-Ra said.
However, AI is also threatening millions of jobs in India and the Philippines in the Business Processes Outsourcing industry, which includes roles in customer support and payroll services.
"That industry has driven a lot of people out of the regions and into paid employment for the first time, especially women," he said.
"The only advantage these countries have is an educated labour force that doesn't have to be paid much. If you have educated labour that doesn't have to be paid at all, it's hard to remain competitive."
He said AI was being used in interesting ways in mining and farming in the Hunter.
"What it should do in the future, and I put 'should' in big, bold letters, is decentralise industries so people don't have to move to Sydney or Melbourne to get work, more people can work here."
Award-winning journalist and Newcastle Writers Festival founder Rosemarie Milsom will host the discussion.
