Jack Ma And Elon Musk Spoke About Tech & AI: One Of Them Made A Lot Of Sense, Guess Who?

When two tech legends speak, it's wise to pay attention. And it doesn't get bigger than these two tech icons.

China's Jack Ma and America's Elon Musk came together for a debate at Shanghai AI summit to talk about future of tech and where does Artificial Intelligence or AI truly stand. And it went exactly as you would have pictured.

Reuters

Elon Musk, from the very beginning, portrayed an Anti-AI stance stating that AI has the power to truly control humanity. He felt that humans are very slow compared to computers. Erratically, Musk stated, "rate of advancement of computers in general is insane", and when AI hears a human speak, it sounds like whale sounds to them. "The computer will just get impatient if nothing else. It will be like talking to a tree," Musk said.

Alibaba founder Jack Ma didn't agree with this and stated "Computers may be clever, but human beings are much smarter," Ma said. "We invented the computer -- I've never seen a computer invent a human being." He also stated that he would be really interested to see two computers compete with each other.

Jack Ma also stated that he is "not a tech guy," and just a "street smart" guy who doesn't need to worry about AI taking over. He added, "I think AI can help us understand humans better. I don't think it's a threat." To that Musk commented, "I don't know man, that's like, famous last words."

Musk also spoke about his Neuralink project and how mankind's hope lies in "going along for the ride" by harnessing some of that computing power using Neuralink that is currently working on creating a device that'll be implanted into the brain to help humans to interact with computers straight from their brain.

Oddly enough, Musk thinks we're no different than cyborgs. "Right now we are already a cyborg because we are so well-integrated with our phones and our computers," he said. "The phone is like an extension of yourself. If you forget your phone, its like a missing limb."

Youtube/New China TV

The One Thing Jack Ma And Elon Musk Did Agree On

Keeping the AI-smartness debate aside, the one thing Jack Ma and Elon Musk could agree on is the rising level of population in the world.

Musk stated, "Most people believe that we have too many people on the planet. This is an outdated view," He added, "Assuming there's a benevolent AI, the biggest problem the world will face in 20 years, is a population collapse. Not explosion. Collapse."

Do you think AI will get smarter than humans or will humans be always one step ahead of AI? Let us know in the comments below.