The line between science-fiction and reality is slowly vanishing every day as technological breakthroughs are now being achieved with break-neck speeds. For instance, Artificial Intelligence was only known in sci-fi movies just several years ago but has now become a part of people’s lives without anybody even giving it a second thought.
Most would agree that artificial intelligence is a valuable addition to people’s day-to-day activities, while others would think otherwise, which raises the question; Is AI going to be a threat to humankind in the future?
Some people think so, in particular, founder of SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. He expressed his concerns about the technology during the National Governors Association summer meeting on Saturday.
Elon Musk suggests artificial intelligence be regulated
The 46-year-old CEO doesn’t actually think that A.I. is impractical to society. In fact, he uses the technology in Tesla’s autonomous vehicle program.
However, he does think that artificial intelligence poses an “Existential Risk” to humanity, according to a report by The Verge. Musk said at the event, “I keep sounding the alarm bell, but until people see robots going down the street killing people, they don’t know how to react because it seems so ethereal.”
Musk added that the current regulation, wherein the government only takes action when unfortunate things already happened, is not enough to keep society safe.
That is why Musk is asking AI to be regulated properly before it’s too late.
Researchers are also calling the attention of the Trump administration for its lack of interest in the technology.
The threat of artificial intelligence
There are a number of people who are involved in this science that doesn't think Musk’s worries will ever happen in the future.
David Ha, a researcher with Google Brain, said that he wasn’t that concerned about artificial intelligence itself, but rather the people with ill-intentions that could get their hands on the technology.
In addition, Francois Chollet, the creator of Keras, wasn’t sure if AI would develop new threats to society; however, he did mention there is a possibility that this technology can make existing threats even worse.
Arguably the greatest threat is mass population control via message targeting and propaganda bot armies. ML not a requirement though
— François Chollet (@fchollet) July 16, 2017
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