Just who is Elon Musk… AND WHY DOES HE THINK ROBOTS WILL DESTORY MANKIND?
BILLIONAIRE entrepreneur Elon Musk has warned that work on creating artificial intelligence is like “summoning the devil”.
The Tesla electric cars, Space X rocket manufacturer and PayPal founder – said to be the reincarnation of Iron Man hero Tony Stark – believes we could end up with a Terminator- style scenario with lifelike robots taking over.
He has previously warned that AI technology could someday be more harmful than nuclear weapons.
Speaking at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) AeroAstro Centennial Symposium last week, Musk described AI as our “biggest existential threat”.
He said: “I think we should be very careful about artificial intelligence.
“If I had to guess at hat our biggest existential threat is, it’s probably that.
“I’m increasingly inclined to think that there should be some regulatory oversight, maybe at national and international level, just to make sure that we don’t do something very foolish.
“With artificial intelligence we’re summoning the demon. You know those stories where there’s the guy with the pentagram, and the holy water, and he’s sure he can control the demon? Doesn’t work out.”
Scary
Musk, who moved to America from South Africa aged 17, has claimed that a horrific Terminator- like scenario could be created from research into artificial intelligence.
The 42-year-old is so worried, he is investing in AI companies – NOT to make money but to keep an eye on the technology, in case it gets out of hand.
Musk said: “There have been movies about this – you know, like Terminator.
“There are some scary “An asteroid or a supervolcano could certainly destroy us, but we also face risks the dinosaurs never saw: An engineered virus, nuclear war, inadvertent creation of a micro black hole, or some as-yet-unknown technology could spell the end of us.” “There are some important differences between me and Tony Stark, like I have five kids, so I spend more time going to Disneyland than parties.” outcomes. And we should try to make sure the outcomes are good – not bad.”
In August, Musk warned that AI could do more harm than nuclear weapons.
Recommending a book by Nick Bostrom on Twitter, called Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies – that looks at a robot uprising – he posted: “We need to be super careful with AI. Potentially more dangerous than nukes.”
And in another tweet, Musk wrote: “Hope we’re not just the biological boot loader for digital super-intelligence.
“Unfortunately, that increasingly probable.”
Musk taught himself computer programming and at the age 12 sold the computer code for a video game called Blastar for £350.
His biggest success came in October 2002 when he sold PayPal to eBay for $1.5 billion (£1bn).
Last year he unveiled a proposal for a new form of transportation between the Greater Los Angeles area and the San Francisco Bay Area which is called “hyperloop,” and which is a hypothetical subsonic solar-powered air travel machine that he claims could be built for around £4.5bn.
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