Billionaire inventor Elon Musk has once again called for a global tightening of the oversight of artificial intelligence, warning that accelerating AI developments could lead to AI becoming significantly smarter than humans in the near future.
Addressing the World AI Conference (WAIC) annual event hosted by China on Wednesday, Musk stressed that countries should be worried about the expansion of the AI industry.
Musk, who recently made another visit to Beijing and the Tesla Gigafactory in Shanghai, was the highest-profile foreign speaker at the event’s opening ceremony.
“I think we should be very careful with the development of, especially, artificial general intelligence, or very deep intelligence... Artificial general intelligence is computer intelligence that is smarter than all humans at everything. That is something we should be concerned about,” Musk explained in a video keynote address.
Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) refers to a type of artificial intelligence that possesses the ability to understand, learn, adapt, and apply knowledge across a wide range of tasks, much like a human being.
Unlike traditional AI which excels at one specific task, AGI can solve complex problems, make decisions, and even exhibit creativity and emotional understanding. In essence, AGI has the potential to perform any intellectual task that a human can do, hence often referred to as “true AI.”
Musk’s Relations with Beijing Remain Solid
The Twitter owner and former CEO expressed his belief in China's potential in the field of AI during his speech.
“I think China is going to be great at anything it puts its mind into. That includes many different sectors – sectors of the economy, but also artificial intelligence,” he asserted, without commenting on the upcoming U.S. export restrictions to China.
According to earlier reports, the U.S. is preparing new regulations that could limit the use of domestic cloud-computing services by Chinese companies.
The regulations set to be unveiled in the coming weeks could require cloud-service providers such as Amazon and Microsoft to acquire approval from the U.S. Department of Commerce before offering AI cloud-computing services to China-based customers.
Meanwhile, Musk continues to enjoy positive relations with Chinese authorities, as seen in his interactions with at least three top-level Chinese officials including Foreign Minister Qin Gang during his visit in May.
Furthermore, his stance against the "decoupling" of the world's two largest economies has garnered significant attention worldwide.
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