Thursday, October 30, 2014

With artificial intelligence we are summoning the demon

Well that's what Tesla chief executive Elon Musk has just warned us of in a lengthy talk to MIT Aeronautics and Astronautics department’s Centennial Symposium. Here's a quote: "I think we should be very careful about artificial intelligence. If I were to guess like what our biggest existential threat is, it’s probably that. So we need to be very careful with the artificial intelligence. Increasingly scientists think there should be some regulatory oversight maybe at the national and international level, just to make sure that we don’t do something very foolish. With artificial intelligence we are summoning the demon. In 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."
   By coincidence yesterday whilst watching a doco called Los Angeles Plays Itself I noted a comment in the film: "Robots won't be sexy and dangerous, they'll be boring and efficient - and take our jobs" that rather chimes with Musk's thoughts.
You can watch his entire talk below.

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