Elon Musk is relentless when it comes to his opinion regarding artificial intelligence. He coined AI to be humanity’s biggest existential threat, agreeing to what Stephen Hawking said in 2014 that AI could be a real danger in the not too distant future.
“With artificial intelligence, we are summoning the demon,” he told an audience of students in 2015.
The tech CEO even predicted this year that killer robots and autonomous weapons will most likely be the cause of the World War III.
While this has been the consistent view of Musk, two other tech CEOs in his ranks believe that AI is not really a threat to human existence.
Photo via Reuters
“This is a case where Elon and I disagree,” says Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates in a recent interview with the WSJ Magazine joined by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
“The so-called control problem that Elon is worried about isn’t something that people should feel is imminent,” says Gates. “We shouldn’t panic about it,” he added.
But Gates’ opinion seems to be varying on this topic. In a Reddit AMA in early 2015, he wrote a different position, “I am in the camp that is concerned about super intelligence.
“First the machines will do a lot of jobs for us and not be super intelligent. That should be positive if we manage it well. A few decades after that though the intelligence is strong enough to be a concern. I agree with Elon Musk and some others on this and don’t understand why some people are not concerned.”
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Meanwhile, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is on the same boat with Gates, at least recently. He believes in the future where AI makes human life better.
In a Facebook Live broadcast, Zuckerberg said, “With AI especially, I’m really optimistic.
“I think that people who are naysayers and kind of try to drum up these doomsday scenarios – I just, I don’t understand it. I think it’s really negative and in some ways I actually think it is pretty irresponsible,” Zuckerberg added.
Sources: CNBC | Washington Post | CNN
