In 1997, Buffy the Vampire Slayer aired an episode in which
technology enthusiasts downloaded a contained demon into a robot vessel,
effectively exploring a supernatural version of the worst-case scenario
regarding exponential technological advancement. Almost eighteen years later,
SpaceX founder, CEO or Tesla Motors, and well-known artificial intelligence
alarmist Elon Musk is making the same comparison, claiming that at the rate
we're going, humanity could just as easily lose control of AI as a poor schmuck
in a horror movie inevitably loses control of the demon he summoned.
The answer starts at 1:07:20
"With artificial intelligence, we are summoning the demon," said Musk. "You know all those stories where there's the guy with the pentagram and the holy water and he's like... yeah, he's sure he can control the demon, [but] it doesn't work out."
His words of caution are accompanied by a call for increased
government regulation of artificial intelligence: "I think we should be
very careful about artificial intelligence. If I had to guess at what our
biggest existential threat is, it’s probably that." he said. "I'm
increasingly inclined to thing 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."
In the above interview, he also claims that he invests in
technology companies working on artificial intelligence companies "just to
keep an eye on it." This dramatic rhetoric follows another recent
inflammatory AI sound bite, in which he claimed that it might be more dangerous
than nuclear warfare.
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