--- title: Stephen Hawking Reddit AMA: Astrophysicist's Best Answers description: He reveals the greatest mystery of all, plus his favorite song of all time and his fears about artificial intelligence canonical: https://time.com/4066421/stephen-hawking-reddit-ama/ author: Samantha Grossman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-08T17:00:08.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:02:58.715Z og:title: Stephen Hawking Revealed Life's Most Intriguing Mystery in His Reddit AMA og:description: Plus, his favorite song of all time and his fears about artificial intelligence og:url: https://time.com/4066421/stephen-hawking-reddit-ama/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4dcf998d81035567/6988532506f2c11d1333a81d/stephen-hawking.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1706 og:image:height: 960 og:image:alt: Stephen Hawking og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Stephen Hawking Revealed Life's Most Intriguing Mystery in His Reddit AMA twitter:description: Plus, his favorite song of all time and his fears about artificial intelligence twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4dcf998d81035567/6988532506f2c11d1333a81d/stephen-hawking.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Stephen Hawking Revealed Life's Most Intriguing Mystery in His Reddit AMA > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ## Video: 10 Questions for Stephen Hawking [Watch (HLS stream): 10 Questions for Stephen Hawking](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/e2C6Witp.m3u8) (4:47)  _Published 2010-11-04. The renowned physicist has a new book, The Grand Design. Stephen Hawking will now take your questions._ by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Oct 8, 2015 5:00 PM UTC  Stephen Hawking attends the EE British Academy Film Awards at The Royal Opera House in London on Feb. 8, 2015. Stephen Hawking attends the EE British Academy Film Awards at The Royal Opera House in London on Feb. 8, 2015.Mike Marsland—WireImage by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Oct 8, 2015 5:00 PM UTC Back in July, Stephen Hawking began collecting questions for his first-ever [Ask Me Anything Q&A session](https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/3nyn5i/science%5Fama%5Fseries%5Fstephen%5Fhawking%5Fama%5Fanswers/) on Reddit. Now, the legendary astrophysicist has tackled some of the questions. Hawking mostly focused on inquiries about artificial intelligence, which was predetermined as the overarching topic of the AMA. (Earlier this year, Hawking signed [an open letter](http://time.com/3973500/elon-musk-stephen-hawking-ai-weapons/), along with Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk, warning of the dangers of weaponized robots and of a potential “global AI arms race.”) But the scientist also addressed other topics, like Rod Stewart, _The Big Bang Theory_, and life’s greatest mystery. (Which, as the Washington _Post_ [points out](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/10/08/highlights-from-stephen-hawkings-reddit-ama-women-are-the-most-intriguing-mystery/), is not actually a mystery.) Here are a few of his best responses. ### **On whether a machine can become smarter than its creator:** “It’s clearly possible for a something to acquire higher intelligence than its ancestors: we evolved to be smarter than our ape-like ancestors, and Einstein was smarter than his parents.” ### **On life’s most intriguing mystery:** “Women. My PA reminds me that although I have a PhD in physics women should remain a mystery.” ### **On his favorite song ever written, and his favorite movie of all time:** “Have I Told You Lately” by Rod Stewart and _Jules et Jim_ ### **On the real risk of AI:** “Media often misrepresent what is actually said. The real risk with AI isn’t malice but competence. A superintelligent AI will be extremely good at accomplishing its goals, and if those goals aren’t aligned with ours, we’re in trouble. You’re probably not an evil ant-hater who steps on ants out of malice, but if you’re in charge of a hydroelectric green energy project and there’s an anthill in the region to be flooded, too bad for the ants. Let’s not place humanity in the position of those ants. Please encourage your students to think not only about how to create AI, but also about how to ensure its beneficial use.” ### **On the last thing he saw online that he found hilarious:** _The Big Bang Theory_ ### On “technological unemployment” and whether machines will take all our jobs: “If machines produce everything we need, the outcome will depend on how things are distributed. Everyone can enjoy a life of luxurious leisure if the machine-produced wealth is shared, or most people can end up miserably poor if the machine-owners successfully lobby against wealth redistribution. So far, the trend seems to be toward the second option, with technology driving ever-increasing inequality.” _Read next:_ [_Read Stephen Hawking’s Sweet Note to Eddie Redmayne After His Oscar Win_](http://time.com/3719584/eddie-redmayne-best-actor-oscar-stephen-hawking/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4066421/stephen-hawking-reddit-ama/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4066421/stephen-hawking-reddit-ama/"},"headline":"Stephen Hawking Revealed Life's Most Intriguing Mystery in His Reddit AMA","datePublished":"2015-10-08T17:00:08.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:02:58.715Z","description":"Plus, his favorite song of all time and his fears about artificial intelligence","url":"https://time.com/4066421/stephen-hawking-reddit-ama/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Science topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4dcf998d81035567/6988532506f2c11d1333a81d/stephen-hawking.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Grossman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4dcf998d81035567/6988532506f2c11d1333a81d/stephen-hawking.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Stephen Hawking","caption":"Stephen Hawking","creditText":"Mike Marsland—WireImage","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4066421/stephen-hawking-reddit-ama/","name":"Stephen Hawking Revealed Life's Most Intriguing Mystery in His Reddit AMA"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"10 Questions for Stephen Hawking","description":"The renowned physicist has a new book, The Grand Design. 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