Billionaire inventor Elon Musk amped up his warning against a Terminator-style apocalypse on Twitter last weekend by telling followers that artificial intelligence could be “potentially more dangerous than nukes.”
Worth reading Superintelligence by Bostrom. We need to be super careful with AI. Potentially more dangerous than nukes.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 3, 2014
While on the subject of AI risk, Our Final Invention by @jrbarrat is also worth reading
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 3, 2014
Hope we’re not just the biological boot loader for digital superintelligence. Unfortunately, that is increasingly probable
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 3, 2014
In a follow-up tweet the Tesla Motors, SpaceX and SolarCity founder referenced a book by Oxford University philosophy professor Nick Bostrom titled “Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies.”
“Superintelligence asks the questions: What happens when machines surpass humans in general intelligence?” the book’s Amazon description reads. “Will artificial agents save or destroy us? Nick Bostrom lays the foundation for understanding the future of humanity and intelligent life.”
(RELATED: Elon Musk: Artificial Intelligence Could Create ‘Terminator’)
This isn’t the first time Musk has put his mouth or his money into the debate over AI — during a CNBC interview earlier this summer Musk said he had invested in multiple AI startups for the sole purpose of tracking their progress, and that movies “like ‘Terminator’” have already imagined the potential danger posed by the tech.