Elon Musk has been pretty vocal about his fears on the future of Artificial Intelligence, speaking on numerous occasions about the risks of allowing AI to grow unchecked. Now, in a tweet, the Tesla boss straight out called for regulation.
“Got to regulate AI/robotics like we do food, drugs, aircraft & cars. Public risks require public oversight. Getting rid of the FAA wdn’t (sic) make flying safer. They’re there for good reason,” the message reads.
This new message comes a day after Elon Musk made a reference to the new Boston Dynamics robot that can jump and do backflips in which he states that “this is nothing,” adding that in a few years that robot will move so fast you’ll need a strobe light to see it.
The entrepreneur has issued numerous such statements where his views on artificial intelligence are pretty apocalyptic. He believes that while many companies have their best intentions at heart, they might become so engrossed in their work, they won’t realize the downside of anything they create until it’s too late.
While his statements may very well be somewhat exaggerated, it doesn’t mean that he’s not right about the need to regulate this particular industry, or at least to set some boundaries. The moral lines in the sand are already there, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be researchers stepping over that line. In fact, many experts in the field believe that AI and the way it is used will only be as good as the purpose of the researcher creating it. That being said, if an evil mastermind is behind it, then AI might also be used for nefarious purposes.
However, pretty much as it happens with any other type of programming, there’s little you can do about this. As it happens, AI still requires powerful computers that are expensive. In the next few years, however, the costs are going to drop considerably if we’re to take into account Moor’s law of exponential growth.
That being said, the current state of AI is far from that Hollywood image where they’ve reached Singularity and they’re smarter than humans and become conscious. Even with all the research and studies being done, humanity is still very much in control of Artificial Intelligence.
The Cyber-Secret Futurist 