Billionaire Elon Musk on Thursday welcomed China’s engagement on artificial intelligence (AI) safety and said he wanted to see Beijing aligned with the UK and the US on the subject, speaking in London alongside British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Musk backed China’s inclusion in the first AI Safety Summit, hosted at Bletchley Park, England, which has drawn leading companies and nations together to agree initial steps on how to manage the risks of cutting-edge AI models.
“If the United States and the UK and China are aligned on safety, then that’s going to be a good thing, because that’s where the leadership is generally,” Musk said.
Photo:Bloomberg
Musk, who was in May given royal-like treatment during a visit to China, welcomed that Beijing had participated in AI safety talks at the event.
“Having them here I think was essential, really. If they’re not participants, it’s pointless,” he said.
Sunak interviewed Musk — feted by Britain as a star guest at the two-day summit — on a small stage in a gilded room at London’s Lancaster House, one of the government’s most opulent venues, which is often used for diplomatic functions.
Self-confessed technology geek Sunak said he felt “privileged and excited” to host Musk, and used the occasion to make a not-so-subtle investment pitch when the Tesla and SpaceX founder said start-ups needed high rewards to take risks in the sector.
“We very much have a tax system that supports that,” Sunak said.
The eclectic discussion took place in front of an invited audience of dozens of other business leaders, the final event in a two-day summit seen as a big step forward in harnessing AI for good by starting to think about the serious risks it might pose.
Musk and Sunak agreed on the possible need for physical “off-switches” to prevent robots from running out of control in a dangerous way, making reference to The Terminator film franchise and other science-fiction films.
“All these movies with the same plot fundamentally all end with the person turning it off,” Sunak said, adding that the importance of physical off switches had formed part of the discussions at the summit earlier in the day.
Musk told Sunak he thought AI was “the most disruptive force in history,” speculating that the technology would be able to “do everything” and make employment as we know it today a thing of the past.
“I don’t know if that makes people comfortable or uncomfortable,” he said. “It’s both good and bad. One of the challenges in the future will be, how do we find meaning in life if you have a magic genie that can do everything you want?”
An American scientist convicted of lying to US authorities about payments from China while he was at Harvard University has rebuilt his research lab in Shenzhen, China, to pursue technology the Chinese government has identified as a national priority: embedding electronics into the human brain. Charles Lieber, 67, is among the world’s leading researchers in brain-computer interfaces. The technology has shown promise in treating conditions such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and restoring movement in paralyzed people. It also has potential military applications: Scientists at the Chinese People’s Liberation Army have investigated brain interfaces as a way to engineer super soldiers by boosting
Indonesian police have arrested 13 people after shocking images of alleged abuse against small children at a daycare center went viral, sparking outrage across the nation, officials said on Monday. Police on Friday last week raided Little Aresha, a daycare center in Yogyakarta on Java island, following a report from a former employee. CCTV footage circulating on social media showed children, most younger than two, lying on the floor wearing only diapers, their hands and feet bound with rags. The police have confirmed that the footage is authentic. Police said they also found 20 children crammed into a room just 3m by 3m. “So
A grieving mother has ended her life at a clinic in Switzerland four years after the death of her only child. Wendy Duffy, 56, a physically healthy woman, died at the Pegasos clinic in Basel after struggling to cope with the death of her 23-year-old son, Marcus. The former care worker, from the West Midlands, England, had previously attempted to take her own life. The case comes as assisted dying would not become law in England and Wales after proposed legislation, branded “hopelessly flawed” by opponents, ran out of time. Ruedi Habegger, the founder of Pegasos, described Duffy’s death as
From post offices and parks to stations and even the summit of Mount Fuji, Japan’s vending machines are ubiquitous, but with the rapid pace of inflation cooling demand for their drinks, operators are being forced to rethink the business. Last month beverage giant DyDo Group Holdings announced it would remove about 20,000 vending machines — about 7 percent of their stock nationwide — by January next year, to “reconstruct a profitable network.” Pokka Sapporo Food & Beverage, based in Nagoya, also said last month it would sell its 40,000-machine operation to Osaka-based Lifedrink Co. “The strength of the vending machine
RSS