Elon Musk – Artificial Intelligence is Akin to ‘Summoning the Demon’.

Telsa CEO and SpaceX founder Elon Musk believes artificial intelligence (AI) is like summoning the demon, and that humanity should tread with caution. We all know the AI apocalyptic novels and movies – with robots and artificial life taking a hold of power and dominating life over the planet. During a Q&A session at an MIT Aeronautics and Astronautics Centennial Symposium, Musk made it clear he wasn’t keen on leading us down such a path for artificial intelligence; warning us of the dangers AI could lead us to.  We need to make sure “we don’t do something very foolish,” Musk said. “If I were to guess like what our biggest existential threat is, it’s probably that.” Musk continued stating that within “all those stories where there’s the guy with the pentagram and the holy water, it’s like yeah he’s sure he can control the demon. Didn’t work out.”

One thing is for certain, Musk is a firm believer that AI is a real and potential threat – warning us earlier in the year on Twitter that “we need to be super careful with AI. Potentially more dangerous than nukes.” Musk was so caught up in the question of AI that he actually failed to take in the next audience members question. He apologised with “sorry can you repeat the question, I was just sort of thinking about the AI thing for a second.” eTeknix readers, where do you stand on the topic of artificial intelligence?

Thanks to MIT for providing us with this information.

Image courtesy of Den of Geek.