Elon Musk isn’t scared of anything—except perhaps bankruptcy and artificial intelligence. The tech billionaire, who peddles luxury electric vehicles designed to drive autonomously, has once again expounded on the evils of AI.
“I have exposure to the most cutting-edge AI. And I think people should be really concerned about it,” Musk said during the weekend’s National Governors Association (NGA) Summer Meeting.
Speaking with Governor Brian Sandoval of Nevada, home to the Tesla Gigafactory, Musk suggested proactive regulation to help stave off a robot apocalypse.
“AI [is] a rare case where I think we need to be proactive in regulation instead of reactive,” he said. “By the time we’re reactive … it’s too late.”
Supervisory agencies like the Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration, and Food and Drug Administration are typically created in response to “a whole bunch of bad things” happening, Musk explained, adding that the process usually “takes forever.”
“That, in the past, has been bad, but not something which represented a fundamental risk to the existence of civilization,” he continued. “AI is a fundamental risk to the existence of human civilization.”
In a way, that car accidents, plane crashes, faulty drugs, and bad food were not when their corresponding bureaus were established. Musk once compared the tech he both fears and profits from to “summoning the demon.” But as artificial intelligence advances, jokes about sentient androids and a Westworld-like takeover become less funny and more terrifying.
“I keep sounding the alarm bell, but until people see robots going down the street killing people, they don’t know how to react, because it seems to ethereal,” Musk said on Saturday.
According to a recent report, major technology companies (mostly Google, Facebook, and Baidu) invested $26 to $49 billion in AI research in 2016. And that number is expected to rise as more companies replace human workers with automated employees.
“There’ll certainly be a lot of job disruption,” according to Musk. “Because what’s going to happen is that robots will be able to do everything better than us.” Himself included.
“I’m not sure exactly what to do about this,” he admitted. “This is really like the scariest problem to me. … AI is a fundamental, existential risk for human civilization. And I don’t think people fully appreciate that.”
Be the first to comment