Tech billionaire and Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, just sent a dire message to President Donald Trump, warning that if he didn’t act now the consequences could be catastrophic.
While it sounds like the beginning of a science-fiction movie, Musk is completely serious.
At the bipartisan National Governors Association in Rhode Island, Musk spoke about electric cars, energy sources and space travel.
But the crowd’s ears especially perked up when Musk was asked about Artificial Intelligence and the need for government regulation.
“AI is a fundamental existential risk for human civilization, and I don’t think people fully appreciate that.” Among all of the threats we face in the world, from terrorism to nuclear warfare, Musk believes AI is “the scariest problem.”
And it’s a problem that we need to address now.
“I think by the time we are reactive in AI regulation, it’s too late,” he warned.
While he recognized that government regulation of anything is “not fun” and “irksome,” its something necessary before robots outsmart people.
“Robots will do everything better than us,” Musk said.
He suggested that the first step should be for the government to inform themselves of AI and the research currently being done.
“Once there is awareness, people will be extremely afraid, as they should be.”
And this isn’t the first time Musk has issued this serious warning.
In 2014, he made the comparison of AI developers to people who summon demons they think they can control. Since then, he has warned of an AI arms race, and begun projects to assure AI will never be controlled by one company.
Trump has appreciated the insight from technology experts throughout his presidency, meeting with a panel of the tech world’s finest in June to improve the governments frequently hacked IT systems.
While Trump has yet to comment on Musk’s latest warning, multiple governors who heard his speech are skeptical, mostly due to the youth of the technology as a whole.
But in a way, that is Musk’s entire argument, Artificial Intelligence is a technology we need to get ahead of, before it outsmarts us.
-The Horn editorial team