Elon Musk, who hopes that one day everyone will ride in a self-driving, electric-powered Tesla, told a group of governors that they needed to get on the ball and start regulating artificial intelligence, which he called a “fundamental risk to the existence of human civilization.”
No pressure. When pressed for better guidance, Musk said the government must get a better understanding of the latest achievements in artificial intelligence before it’s too late.
“Once there is awareness, people will be extremely afraid, as they should be,” Musk said. “AI is a fundamental risk to the future of human civilization in a way that car accidents, airplane crashes, faulty drugs or bad food were not. They were harmful to a set of individuals in society, but they were not harmful to individuals as a whole.”
And then Musk outlined the ways AI could bring down our civilization, which may sound vaguely familiar.
He believes AI “could start a war by doing fake news and spoofing email accounts and fake press releases, and just by manipulating information. Or, indeed — as some companies already claim they can do — by getting people to say anything that the machine wants.”
Musk said he’s usually against proactive regulation, which can impede innovation. But he’s making an exception in the case of an AI-fueled Armageddon.
“By the time we are reactive in regulation, it’s too late,” he said, confessing that “this is really like the scariest problem to me.”
It is for sure the biggest danger that human race will face in my opinion.