Billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX Elon Musk sees artificial intelligence as the biggest threat to humanity. Musk, speaking at the National Governors Association on Saturday, explained, “There certainly will be job disruption. Because what’s going to happen is robots will be able to do everything better than us. … I mean all of us.”
Transportation-related jobs will likely be the first to go as transport becomes fully autonomous. However, Musk also explained how robots seem to grasp concepts much faster than expected. Robots can now teach themselves complicated things, such as walking, much faster than humans can.
Still, Musk is worried job loss isn’t even the worst part of AI, “I have exposure to the most cutting edge AI and I think people should be really concerned by it.” Adding that people don’t realize the potential behind AI and the deep intelligence in the network. “You say, ‘What harm can a deep intelligence in the network do?’ Well, it can start a war by doing fake news and spoofing email accounts and doing fake press releases and by manipulating information,” Musk explained during the meeting. He doesn’t think this type of deep intelligence is only harmful to a small set of people, but rather detrimental to society as a whole.
The solution? Musk urges AI is one of the rare cases where regulation needs to be proactive rather than reactive. He suggests a regulatory agency should be formed to gain more insight into just how fast AI is developing, followed by the implementation of regulations. More insight will lead to awareness and Musk believes, “Once there is awareness people will be extremely afraid, as they should be.”
Source: NGA
Written by Mila Medonaite for Design Engine July 17, 2017