Nowadays, being afraid that one day the machines will rise up against us and lead us feeble meatbags like cattle to the slaughter seems about as commonplace as being afraid of spiders or heights. As the world grows increasingly autonomous, outsourcing jobs and tasks like driving to artificially intelligent machines, we cede agency over our daily lives in the name of making things easier. But is this fear justified? Elon Musk certainly thinks so.
The CEO or chairman of nearly every futuristic-sounding company you can think of–SpaceX, Tesla, Hyperloop, OpenAI, Neuralink, SolarCity, and The Boring Company–recently made headlines for publicly sparring with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg over the role AI can and should play in the years ahead, as well as how we should approach this awesome (in the original sense) technology.
Image: Universal
In a recent Facebook Live broadcast, Zuckerberg took shots at people who try to “drum up these doomsday scenarios [about A.I. and other futuristic technology],” saying that such behavior is “really negative” and “pretty irresponsible.” In response, Musk took to Twitter to speak truth to power, saying, “I’ve talked to Mark about this. His understanding of the subject is limited.” Fairly damning words considering that Facebook itself recently killed off an A.I. project for becoming too smart too quickly.
Zuckerberg believes in harnessing the potential of A.I. for the betterment of humanity, taking what he describes as an “optimistic” view of how it can benefit mankind. Musk, on the other hand, has gone on record expressing concerns about how A.I. research could result in humans being subjugated and forced to live as second-class citizens. Even worse, if artificial intelligence is left unregulated, we could be murdered in cold blood by their cold, metallic hands, especially if military applications of such technology proceeds unchecked…
So where will this lead us? To the automated easy life or the goo pods from The Matrix? Kyle Hill and I get into it, as well as give you the latest on Musk’s proposed East Coast Hyperloop expansion and a secret within the depths of Tesla that not even Musk himself wants you to know about on a brand new Muskwatch.
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Featured Image: Paramount Pictures/Flickr’s Jurvetson
