Tech billionaire Elon Musk has raised concerns that artificial intelligence (AI), if programmed by people in the “environmental movement”, could pose an existential threat to humanity.
Ahead of the first-ever ‘AI Safety Summit’ in the UK, Musk on Joe Rogan’s podcast warned that some people would use the tech to protect the planet by ending human life, reports the BBC.
The summit is now ongoing, where he is due to meet the UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Many experts believe that such warnings are exaggerated.
President of global affairs at Meta and former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg warned that there is a danger in focusing too much on what AI might look like in the future and disregarding challenges in the here and now.
People shouldn’t let “speculative, sometimes somewhat futuristic predictions” crowd out more immediate challenges, he said.
Musk stated that his views were motivated by concerns that the environmental movement had “gone too far”, the report mentioned.
“If you start thinking that humans are bad, then the natural conclusion is humans should die out,” Musk was quoted as saying.
“If AI gets programmed by the extinctionists, its utility function will be the extinction of humanity… they won’t even think it’s bad,” he added.
The ‘AI Safety Summit 2023’ is a major global event that is taking place at Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, on November 1-2, attended by over 100 world leaders, tech honchos, academics and researchers.
They will participate in talks about how to best maximise the benefits of AI. The summit will also focus on extreme threats posed by AI.
