The Threat Of Robots – Elon Musk Spends Millions To Control Them

A Duke University research project that netted $200,000 will study ethics and AI, while another from Rice University will spend its $69,000 on how AI will impact working in the future. Theoretical Physicist Stephen Hawking, who is a member of the scientific advisory board at The Future of Life Institute, warns of the frightening reality of the impended artificial intelligence: “Success in creating artificial intelligence would be the biggest event in human history”.

Tesla’s Musk had previously also invested in Vicarious, an artificial intelligence company aimed to build a “unified algorithmic architecture”, the idea of which was to attain human level intelligence in language, vision and motor control.

$7 million will be spent on all this research for greater control over AI, much of the money is Musk’s investment in the institute.

The $7 million in total grant awards will be given over the next three years as the projects progress. The institute announced this week that it will be issuing grants to 37 research teams, whittled down from an applicant least of around 300. The 37 research teams funded by the group will conduct studies, surveys and analyses on the impact of super-intelligent machines on various fields including computer science, society, economy, law and so on. Many research projects scored six figures for their own efforts in the space. If we aren’t prepared for the introduction of artificial intelligence, the effects for humanity could be dire.

Musk himself has brought up the Terminator series in the past when talking about the evolution of AI, saying that it could be more risky than nuclear weapons. He’s brought upTerminator in the past while discussing his concerns about the evolution of AI and stated that AI has the potential to be “more risky than nukes”. Two other projects focus on developing an ethical system for AI, and relatedly, teaching AI to explain its decisions to us.

“There is this race going on between the growing power of the technology and the growing wisdom with which we manage it”, the president of the Future of Life Institute, Max Tegmark, said. Recent wars have been characterized by the increased use of drones and other types of machines which do not require humans to be in the direct vicinity of battle. The CEO of SpaceX and Tesla – the real-life inspiration for Iron Man’s Tony Stark – isn’t just alerting the masses to a future we might not be part of by merely flapping his gums.