AI can trigger World War III: Elon Musk

Tesla CEO's comments came after Russian president said the country that leads in AI will rule the world

Everyone knows Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg have totally different sets of ideas regarding the role Artificial Intelligence (AI) could play in the future. The disagreement between the tech wizards escalated in July when Zuckerberg dismissed Musk’s warnings against artificial intelligence as "pretty irresponsible".

Musk responded by calling the Facebook founder’s understanding of AI’s capabilities ‘limited’. Now he’s at it again. The Tesla CEO has once again warned the damage AI could possibly cause.



While much speculation has gone over what could possibly trigger another World War, Musk believes that not countries but an all-powerful AI could cause WWIII.

China, Russia, soon all countries w strong computer science. Competition for AI superiority at national level most likely cause of WW3 imo.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 4, 2017

His comments came shortly after Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that the country that leads in AI will be the next "ruler of the world."

May be initiated not by the country leaders, but one of the AI's, if it decides that a prepemptive strike is most probable path to victory

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 4, 2017

Responding to a Twitter user who claimed that such a powerful AI could only be develop by a corporation since governments’ are incapable of such innovation, Musk said that if needed, governments could obtain AI at gun point.

Govts don't need to follow normal laws. They will obtain AI developed by companies at gunpoint, if necessary.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 4, 2017

Let's just hope we never find out whether Elon Musk got this one right.

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