Billionaire technology entrepreneur Elon Musk has again expressed his concerns over the race to develop artificial intelligence, claiming it is “most likely to cause World War 3”.
China, Russia, soon all countries w strong computer science. Competition for AI superiority at national level most likely cause of WW3 imo.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 4, 2017
The Tesla founder’s comments came after Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that the nation which controls the artificial intelligence will come to rule the word. Opposing his idea, Musk took to Twitter and wrote: “China, Russia — soon all countries with strong computer science. Competition for AI superiority at national level most likely cause of WW3.”
Musk added that the nation needs to be more worried about addressing killer robots than Kim Jong Un’s North Korean regime, which escalated tensions across the globe when it claimed to have tested a new nuclear missile. He believes the dangers of artificial intelligence pose “vastly more risk” than the apparent of North Korea’s nuclear capabilities. “If you're not concerned about AI safety, you should be. Vastly more risk than North Korea,” wrote in a Twitter post last month.
In the recent thread of tweets, Musk spoke out his fears about artificial intelligence in the future. He claimed that it may be actually the AI itself that launches the World War 3.
“[WW3] May be initiated not by the country leaders, but one of the AI’s, if it decides that a pre-emptive strike is most probable path to victory,” Musk added.
Musk’s fear of AI warfare in public statement has been drawing attention since a long time now. Last month, Musk led more than 100 robotics and AI leaders in calling for the United Nations to take action against the lethal autonomous weapons.
“Once developed, lethal autonomous weapons will permit armed conflict to be fought at a scale greater than ever, and at timescales faster than humans can comprehend,” the letter read. “These can be weapons of terror, weapons that despots and terrorists use against innocent populations, and weapons hacked to behave in undesirable ways. We do not have long to act. Once this Pandora’s box is opened, it will be hard to close.”
And Musk is not alone, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and renowned physicist Stephen Hawking have also warned of the threats AI pose to mankind. However, on the contrary, Chief Executive Officer of Alphabet Larry Page believes AI could help mankind and should be allowed to do so. On the other hand, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerber, criticised Musk’s scepticism about AI as “pretty irresponsible”. “With AI especially, I'm really optimistic,” Zuckerberg had said.
