Elon Musk has a prediction about the cause of World War III, and it’s not President Donald Trump and may not even involve humans at all. The head of Tesla and SpaceX on Monday shared a link on Twitter to a report about Russian President Vladimir Putin discussing artificial intelligence: It begins … https://t.co/mbjw5hWC5J “Artificial intelligence is the future, not only for Russia, but for all humankind,” Putin was quoted as saying. “It comes with colossal opportunities, but also threats that are difficult to predict. Whoever becomes the leader in this sphere will become the ruler of the world.” Musk added: China, Russia, soon all countries w strong computer science. Competition for AI superiority at national level most likely cause of WW3 imo. May be initiated not by the country leaders, but one of the AI’s, if it decides that a prepemptive strike is most probable path to victory By comparison, Musk said, the saber-rattling from North Korea wasn’t much to worry about. NK launching a nuclear missile would be suicide for their leadership, as SK, US and China wd invade and end the regime immediately Should be low on our list of concerns for civilizational existential risk. NK has no entangling alliances that wd polarize world into war. One Twitter follower suggested that private companies, rather than governments, were far better at artificial intelligence. Musk replied: Govts don’t need to follow normal laws. They will obtain AI developed by companies at gunpoint, if necessary. He also apologized for the glum tweets, saying he was depressing himself, and promised: “Fun, exciting tweets coming soon!” Musk has frequently warned about the potential dangers of artificial intelligence. In July, he called it “the greatest risk we face as a civilization.” “I have access to the very most cutting edge AI, and I think people should be really concerned about it,” he said. Last month, Musk joined more than 100 leaders in the field to call on governments to ban autonomous weapons. In an open letter, the group wrote: “Lethal autonomous weapons threaten to become the third revolution in warfare. Once developed, they will permit armed conflict to be fought at a scale greater than ever, and at timescales faster than humans can comprehend. These can be weapons of terror, weapons that despots and terrorists use against innocent populations, and weapons hacked to behave in undesirable ways. We do not have long to act. Once this Pandora’s box is opened, it will be hard to close.”
