Should we be more afraid of Elon musk or AI?
His name is constantly swirling around and around the media cyclone outlets, that has created an overwhelming and very much confronting storm filled with anxiety, fear and disbelief. Elon Musk is his name and he is nothing short of a just anybody, he is the billionaire inventor, founder and CEO of the greatest AI creation in the automotive industry to come out of the 21st century; Tesla. The highly optimistic and creative personality that is portrayed to the greater society leads us to believe he is no average joe blow, there’s something about him that makes him truly so individually unique. Over the last couple of weeks Musk has made some of the most extravagant claims with relation to AI, suggesting the technology system is more dangerous than the world’s most powerful and deadly nuclear weapon. But it left me thinking is Elon Musk the one we should be afraid or is he right and AI is truly our worst nightmare.
Facing the reality of AI
In 2014, Elon Musk tweeted and quickly deleted a post that expressed his concern for AI’s extreme development, impact and measure of danger on the human society. This post was just under 5 years ago, and from then till now AI has developed in ways that the human brain could and can still not comprehend, though it has not reached concerning or fearful levels; though rather enhanced our way of living and our conduction and practices of the business space. But I do think Elon Musk might have a point. If we enable AI to develop to a point that is so unimaginable and out of this world there will come a point that it has the ability to endanger the human race and our own unique abilities. The key is letting AI fully distinguish its unique abilities and skills that do not override ours as humans. It should be more about enhancing than replacing.
Elon Musk’s plans
From the self driving ‘back to the future’ inspired AI cars of Tesla to the concept of implementing hard drives into people’s brains or even to the futuristic Space X rocket that has redefined science and space in its own entirety and has left NASA picking their jaws up off the ground. Elon Musk has plans; and they are nothing short of simple. They are so diverse that it has lead to numerous media outlets and platforms to concern their great concern for the future of AI and technology, this diversity scares people. Change and the fear of the unknown leaves people with a funny taste in their mouths. Elon Musk might be a dangerous man, but he’s only danger is himself. His creativity and ability to comprehend the lengths AI can exceed to, baffles me and probably the rest of society. From the wise words himself “there’s a billion-to-one chance we’re living in a base reality”. What more could our world hold that is both scary though rewarding at the same time?
