Tech magnate Elon Musk has compared working on artificial intelligence to ‘summoning the demon’.
The Tesla CEO and SpaceX founder revealed his deep-seated fears of clever-clogs computing during an interview at MIT.
Responding to a question on how he feels about AI, Musk replied: “I think we should be very careful about artificial intelligence.”
“If I had to guess at what our biggest existential threat is, it’s probably that. So we need to be very careful.”
Musk is famous for innovation and investment in tech, but it became clear that AI isn’t something Musk is overly keen on.
“With artificial intelligence we’re summoning the demon,” explained Musk. “You know those stores where there’s the guy with the pentagram, and the holy water, and he’s like yeah, he’s sure he can control the demon? Doesn’t work out.”
The real-life Tony Stark called for regulation over AI research, largely to ensure our entire race isn’t supplanted by overly aggressive logic boards with a chip on their shoulder (punbelievable, we know).
“I’m increasingly inclined to think that there should be some regulatory oversight,” Musk told newly bot-fearing onlookers. “Maybe at the national and international level, just to make sure that we don’t do something very foolish.”
The South African-born technophile is a hot topic in gadgeteer circles, mainly for his outlandish views.
He’s famously the mind behind Hyperloop, a high-speed transportation system that would see us commuter folk zipping along in tubes at 760mph.
It’s still a concept for now, but there’s a fair chance there won’t be any AI involved if it ever did come to fruition.
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