Tesla and Twitter CEO Elon Musk warned Monday of the potential pitfalls of groundbreaking artificial intelligence (AI) technology, telling "Tucker Carlson Tonight" that while he has butted heads with regulators in the past, this new frontier can be potentially dangerous if there aren't boundaries or guidelines.
Musk recounted working with Google co-founder Larry Page years back on artificial intelligence, saying he would warn Page about the importance of AI "safety."
He also stated how humans' edge on their primate cousins are that while chimpanzees are more agile and stronger, homosapiens are smarter. In that regard, AI would top humanity in its most prolific category, he warned.
"Now what happens when something vastly smarter than the smartest person comes along in silicon form? It's very difficult to predict what will happen in that circumstance," he said.
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"It's called the singularity. It's a singularity like a black hole, because you don't know what happens after that. It's hard to predict. So I think we should be cautious with A.I., and I think there should be some government oversight because it is a danger to the public."
In the same way the government is tasked, via the FDA and USDA, to safeguard food and drug consumption – or the FAA for airborne entities – so should there be parameters for artificial intelligence.
Musk said he has been a longtime advocate of strong but sensible regulation, so that companies don't cut corners on safety and get people hurt.
"It's not fun to be regulated. It's sort of arduous to be regulated. I have a lot of experience with very good regulated industries because obviously automotive is highly regulated. You can fill this room with all the regulations that are required for a production car just in the United States."
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"And same thing is true with rockets. You can't just willy-nilly shoot rockets off. Not big ones anyway – because the FAA oversees that. And then even to get a launch license, there are probably half a dozen or more federal agencies that need to approve it, plus state agencies," Musk went on.
He said that despite claims of being a "regulatory maverick" that can "defy" regulators with every new industry he builds or joins, it is realistically not the case.
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Musk proposed the formation of an agency that would begin by crowdsourcing regulatory proposals from the AI industry and draft rules that would be accepted by the leading figures and companies.
"I think we have a better chance of advanced A.I. being beneficial to humanity in that circumstance," he said.
Musk envisioned how a "superintelligent" AI entity could begin influencing public opinion on a certain topic in a negative or flawed way, with the populace unable to discern its destructive conclusion.
