We’re all afraid of something — speaking in public, spiders, someone tripping and poking through your bellybutton with their finger (don’t judge me) — but those fears often just concern ourselves. Elon Musk, on the other hand, probably loses sleep over the thought of artificially intelligent systems quickly and catastrophically outpacing human intelligence. Can you imagine then, his reaction to the world’s first robotic “citizen” name-dropping him during a press conference? Well, you don’t have to, because he responded with a troll.
Just feed it The Godfather movies as input. What’s the worst that could happen? https://t.co/WX4Kx45csv
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 26, 2017
The “it” in question is Hanson Robotics’ “Sophia,” a humanoid animatronic robot that uses AI and scripted responses to hold basic conversations. Sophia was recently granted citizenship in Saudi Arabia — more of a PR stunt to hype a tech conference than an effort to show a good face to our robot overlords.
Musk’s response reflected the basic fear he usually highlights: no matter what we build these intelligences to do, what they do, even with our good intentions, could be beyond our control. I mean, a Godfather-based robot may grant you a great favor, but it also may whack you as a way to solve a problem.
Also on the show today, Robert Bigelow aerospace gigolo wants to beat Elon to the Moon, the Muskmeister goes camping (but not anywhere you’d expect), and we get some uplifting news about Tesla’s work in still struggling Puerto Rico.
Muskwatch airs on Nerdist.com and YouTube every Tuesday, but you can hack the planet and watch it two full days earlier on Sunday if you’re an Alpha subscriber. Find out how you can get 30 days free (and be 48 hours smarter than your dumb friends) right here.
What do you think of this week’s top stories? What else would you like to see us discuss on Muskwatch? Let us know in the comments below!
WHAT ELSE IS ELON MUSK UP TO?
- SpaceX launched a mysterious Air Force spy plane into space
- This AI slaughtered the world’s best Dota 2 players one-on-one
- Engine maker Cummins prematurely released their electric semi truck
