Elon Musk, 55, expressed his concerns surrounding smart machines on Wednesday, August 22, at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, China. Mr Musk’s warning came after he revealed the work of his company Neuralink in July – a company he co-founded to merge human brains with machine interfaces. Speaking at the AI conference, the SpaceX boss argued computers are already outsmarting their creators in most scenarios. More shockingly, Mr Musk claimed some researchers are making the mistake of thinking they are smarter than AI.
Mr Musk told the chairman of Alibaba Jack Ma: “I think generally people underestimate the capability of AI. They sort of think like it’s a smart human.
“But it’s really going to be much more than that. It’ll be much smarter than the average human.
“It’ll be like, can a chimpanzee really understand humans? Not really, you know, we just seem like strange aliens. They mostly just care about other chimpanzees.
“And how it is more or less and if the difference is only that small, that would be amazing. Probably, it’s much greater.
“The biggest mistake I see artificial intelligence researchers making is assuming they’re intelligent. They’re not, compared to AI.
“A lot of them cannot imagine something that is smarter than them but AI will be vastly smarter. Vastly.
As a result, the SpaceX founder argued, humans will have to rapidly adapt to keep up with technology.
Unfortunately, Mr Musk did not have a solution to the problem and instead, said he hopes the machines “are nice”.
We will be far, far surpassed in every single way. I guarantee it
Elon Musk, SpaceX CEO
“A lot of them cannot imagine something that is smarter than them but AI will be vastly smarter. Vastly.
As a result, the SpaceX founder argued, humans will have to rapidly adapt to keep up with technology.
Unfortunately, Mr Musk did not have a solution to the problem and instead, said he hopes the machines “are nice”.
Mr Musk said: “We will be far, far surpassed in every single way. I guarantee it.”
Mr Ma, however, was not as pessimistic about a future world driven by intelligent machines.
In his opinion, computers are still far from “controlling” humans in a Matrix-like scenario.
The Alibaba chairman said: “I’ve never in my life, especially last two years when people talk about AI, human beings will be controlled by machines. I never think about that. It’s impossible.”
Mr Musk’s appearance at the Shanghai conference was not the first time he has publicly warned of artificial intelligence.
In 2014, the billionaire dubbed AI humanity’s “biggest existential threat” while speaking at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Then in July this year, Mr Musk said technology built by his Neuralink company has allowed a monkey to control a computer with its brain.
The company hopes to move onto human trials at a future date to enhance human skills with the aid of implants in the brain’s nervous system.
On Wednesday, Mr Musk said: “If you can’t beat them, join them. That’s what Neuralink is all about.
“Can we go along for the ride with AI? I mean, I really think there should be other companies like Neuralink to essentially create a high-bandwidth interface to the brain.
“Right now we are already a cyborg because we are so well-integrated with our phones and our computers.
“The phone is like an extension of yourself. If you forget your phone it’s like a missing limb.”
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