Elon Musk Says Man Should Regulate A.I. Before It Becomes a Threat to Civilization
Elon Musk sees a need to regulate artificial intelligence (A.I.) before it becomes a danger to humanity. The CEO of Tesla and Space X, who is famous for his futuristic gambles, said the government needs to proactively regulate A.I. to prevent the risk of "existential threat."
Speaking at Friday's meeting of the U.S. National Governors Association in Rhode Island, Musk said A.I. represents a "fundamental risk to human civilization," and waiting for something bad to happen should not be an option. "By the time we are reactive in A.I. regulation, it's too late," he warned.
"Normally the way regulations are set up is when a bunch of bad things happen, there's a public outcry, and after many years a regulatory agency is set up to regulate that industry," he added. Due to the bureaucratic nature of governance, Musk believes regulation of A.I. should be done now.
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Musk himself uses A.I. and is working on a technology that would enable humans to improve their brain function by connecting the brain to computer software. By letting the brain replicate the functions of the computer, he believes A.I. won't be able to control humans.
Because of dangers posed by A.I., Musk dismissed the practicability of autonomous-driving cars, saying its biggest risk is a "fleet-wide hack" of the software controlling the vehicles. "It just would be unusual to use that as a mode of transport," the tech billionaire said.
Musk has sounded the warning bells on A.I. for quite some time now, along with other tech luminaries like Stephen Hawking and Bill Gates as they believe it could be a threat to society. They hypothesized that A.I. will evolve to a point at where humanity won't be able to control its own creations.
Prof. Hawking believes that "humans, limited by slow biological evolution, couldn't compete and would be superseded by A.I." For Microsoft co-founder Gates, he couldn't understand why some people aren't concerned by A.I.'s advanced pace of development.
