You Should be Worried About Artificial Intelligence, Elon Musk warns yet again

Start learning about AI to regulate it before it takes over, Tesla chief tells Governors of states in the US  

"The threat of robots taking over humanity is very real and present", Elon Musk warned ruling governors of states in the USA at the regular summer meet of the National Governors Association —the bipartisan organization of the nation's governors, on Saturday. 

Coming from a man who has a lot at stake in it, this should certainly drive many to the edge of their seats to hear what exactly he meant when he delivered this grim warning. This is not the first time that Musk, co-founer of Tesla and OpenAI, has warned the world about it. All the same, the warnings, coming from a man who has pegged so much on the success of AI itself, are surprising.  

How well Tesla's Model 3, which is expected to hit the US roads late next year, and its successive models which are expected to be highly automated and connected for autonomous driving, depends much on how the onboard AI and deep learning algorithms perform. To top it Musk is also working on an ambitious project through Neuralink, for computer-human interface technologies that foresee chips implanted into the brain communicating directly with devices and connecting to the Internet. Musk is also one of the investor's in leading AI companies DeepMind, now owned by Google parent company Alphabet. 

I have exposure to the most cutting edge artificial intelligence and people should be concerned about it.

But his warnings Saturday at the Governors' meet painted a pointedly doomsday scenario.  “I have exposure to the most cutting edge artificial intelligence and people should be concerned about it,”  he said grabbing the attention of the close to 50 odd governors in the meeting egging them on to learn about AI before it is too late. 

I think we should be proactive in regulation instead of reactive where AI is concerned, he added. Unlike in the past when regulations have been set up only when bad things have happened, humanity cannot take the risk of being wiser in hind sight, he alluded.  

“AI is a fundamental and existential risk to human civilization. People don’t realize that.” Therefore it is important that it is regulated something akin to how the FAA and the FDA regulate the aviation and pharmaceutical industries, he suggested. 

And further more he warned of massive job displacements because of AI and robotization of industries. And the transportation sector, which accounts for 12% of the current overall jobs, will be the first to be hit. 

There will certainly be a lot of job disruption as robots will do everything better than us. It is the scariest problem to me.

“There will certainly be a lot of job disruption as robots will do everything better than us. It is the scariest problem to me. Companies are racing to build AI. Otherwise, competition will crush them. That is why we need the regulators to come in and say when it is safe to proceed.” 

Alarming while it may sound, what Musk spoke out so emphatically is more or less in line with what the previous American dispensation seems to have been seized off. In its last few days of life, the Obama administration had warned of the perils of AI and suggested a three-pronged strategy to prepare the country, particularly in the context of safeguarding jobs.

Musk is in the august company of the likes of Bill Gates and Stephen Hawkings who caution against runaway enthusiasm for AI.  Having said that AI nevertheless something that none of the tech tsars, including Musk himself, can afford to ignore and will continue to develop technologies and robots based on it.    

WHAT MUSK SAID

1.Regulations are immortal unless someone goes and kills them. So it is important to get regulations right so that they live forever.

2.Economic policies should favor innovation, particularly by the small and medium enterprises. 

3.If we can accelerate sustainable energy by 10 years I would call it a great success. 

4.Electric Vehicles (EV)s  will grow exponentially. My guess is, probably in 10 years more than half of new vehicle production will be electric in the USA. China will be way beyond that.  

5.Almost all cars produced will be Autonomous (AV) in 10 years. It will be a huge transformation. And in 20 years, overwhelmingly, most things autonomous – there will be no steering wheel.  

6.All it takes to power the whole of US is a solar farm the size of 100 miles by100 miles with a battery array of one mile by one mile.  

7.Roof top solar will be needed for localized energy production otherwise transmission costs will be high. 

8.I have exposure to the most cutting edge AI. And people should be concerned about it. It is like the scariest problem to me. 

9.But companies will have to race to build AI otherwise competition will crush them. That is why we need the regulators to come in and say when it is safe to proceed. 

10.Transportation sector will be the first and most hit by AI. Autonomous vehicles will kill most of the jobs. 

11.Tesla will be rolling out 5000 Model 3 cars every week beginning late next year.  

12.Human drivers will be given an emergency override button to ensure they will be in control if something goes wrong or is being hacked into.