CEO of Inflection AI Challenges Elon Musk's AI Predictions After UK Summit
Summary:
Inflection AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman criticized Elon Musk's views on artificial intelligence (AI) in a BBC interview following the AI summit in the UK. Suleyman argued that an independent evaluation of AI technology was necessary, describing Musk as "not an AI scientist" but rather a business tycoon with expertise in space and cars, rather than AI. This follows Musk's remarks during the AI summit, where he made predictions about AI's future and its potential dangers, likening AI to "a magic genie" and emphasizing the need for an "off switch".
At the conclusion of the recent Artificial Intelligence (AI) summit in the UK on November 2, Inflection AI CEO and Google’s DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman vocally criticized Elon Musk in a BBC interview. Musk, known for his provocative remarks, had conversed with UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak towards the end of the two-day event, as reported by Cointelegraph.
Musk compared AI to “a magic genie” during the discussion, ominously cautioning that such stories often have an unfavorable outcome. The globe's sporadically wealthiest individual further predicted that AI would soon replace virtually all jobs, leaving humans grappling to find life purpose. On the subject of the existential threats AI could pose, Musk pointed out the need for a "physical off switch" for AI systems to retain control over machines. Sunak echoed Musk’s allusion to Hollywood portrayals of AI, like The Terminator, hinting that they laid the groundwork for their understanding of the technology. “Person turning it off” is how all these films with the same premise conclude, Sunak jested.
Given the nature of contemporary distributed and cloud computing and server technologies, it remains ambiguous which technology the pair referred to, as most AI systems developed over the last ten years would likely resist efforts to “turn off” via a single physical switch.
Later, during a BBC’s Question Time interview, Suleyman dismissed Musk's comments as commonplace. "This is why we require an unbiased, independent evaluation of this technology’s trajectory. Elon Musk is not an AI scientist. He runs a petite AI firm among his numerous other enterprises. His area of speciality is primarily in space and automobiles," Suleyman stated.
Suleyman is not the only AI professional or CEO to question the depth of Musk’s understanding of AI. Gary Marcus, an NYU computer science professor and renowned author, and Vivek Wadha, a distinguished fellow at both Carnegie Mellon and Harvard, refuted Musk’s claim that "AGI," or artificial general intelligence, would materialize by 2029. The duo proposed a $500,000 bet to Musk that AGI would not be achieved before the stipulated deadline. As of now, there is no record of Musk responding or acknowledging this wager.
AGI, a somewhat murky idea without established benchmarks or agreed measurement standards, posits that AI, due to currently undetermined technological advancements, will one day be capable of executing any task that requires intelligence. While some pundits claim AGI or sentient AI may already exist, many other field experts maintain that present systems lack the intelligence or capabilities of humans or other animals because they rely heavily on training, programming, procedural methods, and safeguards.
Published At
11/3/2023 4:34:10 PM
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