As someone with a major in Artificial Intelligence, and who seriously just got back from watching Transcendence...

The movie was well-researched, and surely enjoyable for anyone contemplative. But they had to be farfetched to push the story along. There is likely nothing that occurred in the movie that would reflect any potential real-life issue.

I can't believe I'm disputing Hawking, someone who has accomplished more in a year than I will in my life, with what amounts to an appeal to authority. But I have to say this: his concerns are akin to me being worried about the large hadron collider destroying the universe.