Elon Musk: ‘Robots could wipe humans like spam’

EVERYONE’S favourite billionaire took to the stage yesterday to warn the audience that Artificial Intelligence could be the greatest threat to humanity.

EVERYONE’S favourite billionaire took to the stage yesterday at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit to warn the audience that Artificial Intelligence could be the greatest threat to humanity.

He tried to warn that AI is developing at a speed so rapid humans will eventually be caught out.

“I don’t think anyone realises how quickly artificial intelligence is advancing. Particularly if [the machine is] involved in recursive self-improvement,” Musk said.

He then went to say how movies like I, Robot or Terminator could come true, explaining that if for example, artificial intelligence is programmed to get rid of spam, the AI could determine the best way to eliminate spam is to just get rid of humans.

This isn’t the first time that Elon Musk has tried to warn the world of artificial intelligence. In August this year he tweeted saying that AI could potentially be more dangerous than nuclear weapons.

Worth reading Superintelligence by Bostrom. We need to be super careful with AI. Potentially more dangerous than nukes.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 3, 2014

Hope we're not just the biological boot loader for digital superintelligence. Unfortunately, that is increasingly probable

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 3, 2014

Other key technology figures have also expressed their concerns over AI taking over the world. Google’s director of engineering Ray Kurzweil even posted a video on YouTube discussing a technological “singularity, where artificial intelligence takes over from humans”.