Elon Musk has serious concerns about Artificial Intelligence

Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla has voiced his concerns regarding Artificial Intelligence in a recent comment on Edge.com, claiming that AI may pose a serious threat to our safety in the following 5 or 10 years. The comment in question was quickly removed by the online publication, but thankfully a Reddit user managed to snatch it before it was deleted. Musk allegedly stated that AI technology is showing tremendous improvements which are happening at a fast pace, and the general public is clueless to what Artificial Intelligence may turn into, unless they have access to closed secretive groups such as Deepmind. His theory is that these technologies may be used with bad intentions, as they carry true potential to cause serious damage if leaked on the web, for instance.

“The pace of progress in artificial intelligence (I’m not referring to narrow AI) is incredibly fast. Unless you have direct exposure to groups like Deepmind, you have no idea how fast-it is growing at a pace close to exponential. The risk of something seriously dangerous happening is in the five year timeframe. 10 years at most. This is not a case of crying wolf about something I don’t understand,” he stated.

“I am not alone in thinking we should be worried. The leading AI companies have taken great steps to ensure safety. The recognize the danger, but believe that they can shape and control the digital superintelligences and prevent bad ones from escaping into the Internet. That remains to be seen…,” Musk concluded.

Elon Musk warned about the dangers of AI in the past, claiming that the mismanagement of Artificial Intelligence may result into possible disasters. “With artificial intelligence we’re summoning the demon,” he previously stated. Renowned scientist, Stephen Hawking has also warned about the threats of AI in an Independent article posted back in May, saying that “we need to take it very seriously.” The thought of a real life I Robot scenario where the machines turn against man is both terrifying and plausible, if we were to give credit to these brilliant minds.