AI as world ruler or cause of WW3? Putin VS Musk

The sudden rise in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) has led to renowned people commenting about it including Vladimir Putin and Elon Musk.

At a career guidance forum, the Russian President spoke to students telling them that technological dominance orbits around AI and that the “future now belongs to artificial intelligence”. Putin further claimed that whoever will rule this sector would be the “ruler of the world”.

“Artificial intelligence is the future, not only for Russia, but for all humankind,” exclaimed Putin. “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.”

Putin also predicted that wars in future would be fought through drones and not arms. “When one party's drones are destroyed by drones of another, it will have no other choice but to surrender.”

Aiming to lead the AI category, Putin clarified that he does not want to see anyone “monopolize” the field. He said that Russia would share its knowledge with the world just like it shares its nuclear tech, reports Engadget.

Provoked by Putin’s statement, Elon Musk responded to the Russian President as he tweeted about AI to probably cause existential threat and that this national-level competition will direct AI to be the “most likely cause of World War III”. The entrepreneur believes that a preemptive strike by AI is the “most probable path to victory”, according to The Guardian.

However, this is not the first time Musk has showed his concerns regarding AI. Not long before, Musk and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had a clash over this issue where he accused Musk or being pessimistic. Musk along with other tech entrepreneurs like Stephen Hawking claimed that AI would rapidly exceed humans making them as the second-most intelligent species on Earth.