Elon Musk issues fresh AI warning

Tesla’s chief Elon Musk has said that there’s a 1-in-5 chance that artificial intelligence (AI) would prove to be an existential threat to humanity, Business Insider reported.

"I think there's some chance that it will end humanity. I probably agree with Geoff Hinton that it's about 10% or 20% or something like that,” Musk said while speaking at a seminar during the "Great AI Debate".

"I think that the probable positive scenario outweighs the negative scenario,” he said, without giving details about how he had arrived at this conclusion.

In response, Roman Yampolskiy, an AI safety researcher and director of the Cyber Security Laboratory at the University of Louisville, told Business Insider backed the Tesla chief’s claim.

However, while he noted that technology could be an existential risk for humanity, Musk was a bit too conservative" in his assessment.

"Actual p(doom) [probability of doom] is much higher in my opinion," he said. "Not sure why he thinks it is a good idea to pursue this technology anyway.”

"If he is concerned about competitors getting there first, it doesn't matter as uncontrolled superintelligence is equally bad, no matter who makes it come into existence."