Elon Musk Humiliates Mark Zuckerberg As Their War On Whether AI Is 'Dangerous' Intensifies

Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk are currently caught in a war of words. It's about the future of AI.

Artificial Intelligence research is still in its infancy, but that doesn¡¯t mean we shouldn¡¯t be wary of their future capabilities and plan for the worst accordingly. At least, that¡¯s what Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk believes.

Reuters

However, it seems not everyone in the tech industry agrees with the billionaire entrepreneur. Rewind to last week, where Musk gave a speech to an assembly of US governors, cautioning them on the need for government regulation of AI research. ¡°I have exposure to the very cutting edge AI, and I think people should be really concerned about it,¡± he said. ¡°I keep sounding the alarm bell, but until people see robots going down the street killing people, they don¡¯t know how to react, because it seems so ethereal.¡±

Zuckerberg accused Musk of being 'irresponsbile' about AI

It¡¯s an idea Musk has stated before, though a number of people in the AI industry are of a different opinion. They don¡¯t believe AI is anywhere near as dangerous. Then, this past Sunday, Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg was asked question during one of his livestreamed Q&A sessions. ¡°¡°I watched a recent interview with Elon Musk and his largest fear for the future was AI. What are your thoughts on AI and how it could affect the world?¡± a viewer asked.

Zuckerberg¡¯s response was strong to say the least. ¡°I think you can build things and the world gets better, and with AI especially, I¡¯m really optimistic,¡± he said. ¡°I think people who are naysayers and try to drum up these doomsday scenarios are ¡ª I just, I don¡¯t understand it. It¡¯s really negative and in some ways I think it is pretty irresponsible.¡±

He went on to say that, within the next five to ten years, AI will deliver ¡°so many improvements in the quality of our lives,¡± and he found opposition to the idea questionable. ¡°If you¡¯re arguing against AI you¡¯re arguing against safer cars that aren¡¯t going to have accidents.¡±

Musk fired back at Zuckerberg on Twitter

Of course, that didn¡¯t sit too well with Elon Musk. Today on Twitter, he soundly dismissed Zuckerberg¡¯s statements, when presented with a write up of it, saying the social media icon has a ¡°limited¡± understanding of artificial intelligence.

I've talked to Mark about this. His understanding of the subject is limited.

¡ª Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 25, 2017

But the bickering of billionaires aside, the issue is still up in the air as far as the safety of artificial intelligence is considered. Most researchers scoff at Musk¡¯s ideas that we may eventually face a threat to our very existence ¨¤ la Skynet, though they do agree AI harbours a host of other problems. More current-day issues like AI becoming racially or gender-biased thanks to flawed learning models, or taking our jobs.

As for whether or not we need to worry about killer robots wiping us off the face of the Earth, it can¡¯t hurt too much to take precautions anyway, right?