Actor Robert Downey Jr has said he wants to try and use artificial intelligence (AI) and robots to clean the Earth.
The Iron Man star is perhaps best known for portraying the tech whizz billionaire Tony Stark in the Marvel movies, but his latest claims suggest he's going to try and give it a go for real.
Speaking at Amazon's Machine Learning, Automation, Robotics and Space (MARS) conference in Las Vegas last night, the 54-year-old gave a talk about his life, the Marvel Universe and the technology behind the Iron Man suits.
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Speaking for 20 minutes about his plans for the future, the star opened up about his troubled past and didn't pretend to have the expertise of his alter ego.
He said: "Quick disclaimer, I don't pretend to understand the complexities we face as a species, just because I portrayed a genius in my professional life. My scholastic achievement peaked at a correctional finishing.
"On the flip side, I did play and interesting and iconic character for 11 years, Tony Stark," he said, claiming the most enjoyable part about playing the character was seeing him go from "soulless war profiteer to a man who was willing to sacrifice himself for the good of the community."
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He added: "Recently, I was at a table with super smart, impressive, expert folks about six months ago, and the following statement was made: 'between robotics and technology, we could probably clean up the planet significantly, if not entirely within a decade.
"Being essentially a 54-year-old child. I said, 'Let's do it! Let's commit to a process, let's form a coalition.' And that did not inspire the reaction I expected. It was dead silence."
But while those 'expert folks' weren't sure about how this could actually work, the actor told the conference hall that he is set on at least giving it a go.
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His plan is called the Footprint Coalition -which still doesn't have a website it's that new - and Downey Jr promised it would officially kick off in April 2020 and that he will personally commit the "next 11 years" to making it work.
He said: "I have this quiet sense of crisis. I'm a one-man carbon footprint nightmare colossus."
He went on: "Between robotics and nanotechnology, we could clean up the planet significantly, if not totally, in 10 years.
"I know it's a kumbaya type dream. It's a logistical clusterfuck. I'm down with dedicating myself to maybe one small part of making good on that statement, even in abject failure, it's still the best idea I've ever had."
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Making reference to his departure from the Avengers movies, he joked: "I've got to do something. I'm unemployed."
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