A few days ago, Elon Musk - CEO of SpaceX and Tesla - voiced his concerns about the growing threat of artificial intelligence (AI) and the danger that it poses to humanity. "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 so ethereal", explained Musk at a gathering of US governors.
While the well-known investor and engineer keeps trying to tell the world that AI needs to be regulated, it appears that not every tech billionaire shares his concerns. One such example is co-founder and CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, who dismissed Musk's fears in a Facebook Live Q&As session, claiming them to be "really negative" and "pretty irresponsible". His full response reads as follows:
I have pretty strong opinions on this ... I think you can build things and the world gets better, and with AI especially, I’m really optimistic. I think people who are naysayers and try to drum up these doomsday scenarios are — I just, I don't understand it. It's really negative and in some ways I think it is pretty irresponsible.
Zuckerberg went on to say that AI could bring huge improvements to the quality of life of the general public, citing self-driving cars "that aren't going to have accidents" as an example.
However, Musk has now fired back, saying that Zuckerberg's understanding of the AI threat is limited:
I've talked to Mark about this. His understanding of the subject is limited.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 25, 2017
It is important to note that many tech corporations share Zuckerberg's perspective; that AI can be used as a means to improve people's lives. Microsoft recently announced its AI for Earth initiative, whereas Google is tirelessly working on its DeepMind AI-based AlphaGo program, which defeated the current world number one Go player last May.
Source: Elon Musk (Twitter) via The Verge
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