Elon Musk Warns Nation’s Governors of Looming AI Threat, Calls for Regulations
Elon Musk Warns Nation’s Governors of Looming AI Threat,
Calls for Regulations
Powerful technology will threaten all human jobs, could
even spark a war, Tesla CEO says
By Tim Higgins July 15, 2017 5:32 p.m. ET
Elon Musk warned a gathering of U.S. governors that they
need to be concerned about the potential dangers from the rise of artificial
intelligence and called for the creation of a regulatory body to guide
development of the powerful technology.
Speaking Saturday at the National Governors Association
meeting in Rhode Island, the chief executive of electric-car maker Tesla Inc.
and rocket-maker Space Exploration Technologies Corp. laid out several
worst-case scenarios for AI, saying that the technology will threaten all human
jobs and that an AI could even spark a war. “It is the biggest risk that we
face as a civilization,” he said.
Mr. Musk has been vocal about his concerns about AI and
helped create OpenAI, a nonprofit research group that aims for the safe
development of the technology. He suggested to the governors that a regulatory
agency needs to be formed to begin gaining insight into fast-moving AI
development followed by putting regulations into place.
“Right now the government doesn’t even have insight,” he
said. “Once there is awareness people will be extremely afraid, as they should
be.”
Proponents of AI says such concerns are premature, given
the current state of the technology. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican who
noted that he has spent his own career trying to reduce government regulations,
questioned Mr. Musk over the suggestion of creating new rules, saying he was
unsure what policy makers could do beyond pushing for a slowdown in
development.
“I was surprised by your suggestion to bring regulations
before we know what we are dealing with,” Mr. Ducey said.
“For sure the companies doing AI—most of them, not
mine—will squawk and say this is really going to stop innovation,” Mr. Musk
said. But he said he doubted that such a move would cause companies to leave
the U.S.
During his talk, Mr. Musk also was asked about the
pressures that come from the valuation of Tesla, whose stock has risen more
than 50% this year ahead of the introduction of a new sedan. The market
capitalization has made Tesla bigger than Ford Motor Co. and, at times, larger
than General Motors Co. Those auto makers, unlike Tesla, are profitable and
sell many more vehicles than the niche luxury brand.
Mr. Musk reiterated that shares of Tesla are trading at a
price “higher than we have any right to deserve” and that the high price
reflects the optimism of the future of the company, he said.
“Those expectations sometimes get out of control,” he
said. But Mr. Musk said he is committed to making Tesla a success. Besides
selling shares to pay for taxes, Mr. Musk said he is avoiding selling company
shares. “I’m going down with the ship,” he said.
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