Tesla CEO Elon Musk is not convinced that Facebook’s boss Mark Zuckerberg fully comprehends the basic tenets of artificial intelligence (AI).
Chilling in his Palo Alto backyard, this weekend Zuckerberg hosted an impromptu Facebook Live Q&A session where the young boss answered a series of questions from fans – including some inquiries about his vision of the future of AI.
Live grilling in my backyard.
Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Sunday, July 23, 2017
“I watched a recent interview with Elon Musk and his largest fear for future was AI,” one fan commented, referring to a recent interview in which the Tesla chief warned against the existential threat AI poses to humanity. “What are your thoughts on AI and how it could affect the world?”
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Not shying away from voicing his opinions, Zuckerberg was swift to downplay such “doomsday scenarios.”
“I am optimistic,” the social media titan said. “And I think people who are naysayers and try to drum up these doomsday scenarios… I just, I don’t understand it. It’s really negative and in some ways I actually think it is pretty irresponsible.”
“Whenever I hear people saying AI is going to hurt people in the future, I think yeah, you know, technology can generally always be used for good and bad, and you need to be careful about how you build it and you need to be careful about what you build and how it is going to be used,” he continued.
But it seems Musk was not fully persuaded by this argument. The South African entrepreneur took to Twitter to defend his original position, firing back at Zuckerberg by saying that his understanding of AI is too “limited” to make such statements.
I’ve talked to Mark about this. His understanding of the subject is limited.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 25, 2017
When asked to articulate his position in more detail, the Tesla boss revealed he had discussed the issue extensively in an upcoming movie.
Unfortunately, Musk stopped short of leaving any hints as to when the movie will debut or what the title would be.
Movie on the subject coming soon…
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 25, 2017
Speaking at a US National Governors Association meeting earlier this month, Musk said that, “AI is the rare case where I think we need to be proactive in regulation instead of reactive. Because I think by the time we are reactive in AI regulation, it’ll be too late.
“AI is a fundamental risk to the existence of human civilisation.”
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