Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk trade insults after argument about whether AI could kill us all

'Technology can generally always be used for good and bad'

Mark Zuckerberg gestures while addressing the audience during a meeting of the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) CEO Summit in Lima, Peru, November 19, 2016 (Reuters)

Elon Musk has called Mark Zuckerberg’s understanding of AI “limited”, after the Facebook founder criticised the Tesla chief’s views on the matter as “pretty irresponsible”.

The technology heavyweights have very different viewpoints on the subject of artificial intelligence, with Mr Zuckerberg extremely keen to press ahead with its development.

Mr Musk, on the other hand, has called it “a fundamental existential risk for human civilisation”, and wants the companies working on AI to slow down to ensure they don’t unintentionally create something dangerous.

During a Facebook Live over the weekend, Mr Zuckerberg picked out a question that had been submitted to him by a viewer.

“I watched a recent interview with Elon Musk and his largest fear for future was AI. What are your thoughts on AI and how it could affect the world?” it asked.

Mr Zuckerberg answered: “I have pretty strong opinions on this. I am optimistic. I think you can build things and the world gets better. But with AI especially, I am really optimistic.

“And I think people who are naysayers and try to drum up these doomsday scenarios — I just, I don't understand it. It's really negative and in some ways I actually think it is pretty irresponsible.”

Earlier this month, Mr Musk described AI as the scariest problem humans now face, and said it needs to be regulated as soon as possible.

Mr Zuckerberg dismissed those fears.

He continued: “In the next five to 10 years, AI is going to deliver so many improvements in the quality of our lives. One of the top causes of death for people is car accidents still and if you can eliminate that with AI, that is going to be just a dramatic improvement.

“Whenever I hear people saying AI is going to hurt people in the future, I think yeah, you know, technology can generally always be used for good and bad, and you need to be careful about how you build it and you need to be careful about what you build and how it is going to be used.

“But people who are arguing for slowing down the process of building AI, I just find that really questionable. I have a hard time wrapping my head around that.”

Mr Musk decided to hit back in a comment posted to Twitter.

The likes of Facebook and Google are planning their futures around AI, but key industry figures have expressed fears about it.

Stephen Hawking has said: “The real risk with AI isn't malice but competence. A super intelligent AI will be extremely good at accomplishing its goals, and if those goals aren't aligned with ours, we're in trouble.”

Bill Gates, too, has said artificial intelligence is a cause for concern.

“First the machines will do a lot of jobs for us and not be super intelligent,” he said in 2015. “That should be positive if we manage it well. A few decades after that though, the intelligence is strong enough to be a concern. I agree with Elon Musk and some others on this and don't understand why some people are not concerned.”