Elon Musk raises concerns over advanced AI that 'eliminates or constrains humanity's growth'

Tesla and SpaceX chief said AI is a 'double-edged sword'

Elon Musk again warned about the dangers of artificial intelligence in an interview on Tuesday. 

"There is a risk that advanced AI either eliminates or constrains humanity's growth," the billionaire said at The Wall Street Journal's CEO Council Summit, adding that the technology is a "double-edged sword" and compared it to a mythical genie. 

"If you have a genie that can grant you everything that can also do anything, that necessarily presents a danger," he continued. 

Musk expects that the first government uses of AI to be in weapons technology. 

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Elon Musk waving

Tesla CEO Elon Musk leaves the Phillip Burton Federal Building on Jan. 24, 2023, in San Francisco, California.  (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images / Getty Images)

He was asked about a scenario with AI that "keeps him up at night." 

"I don’t think that AI's going to try to destroy all of humanity, but it might put us under strict controls," Musk said in the interview, although he noted that there is a "non-zero chance of [AI] going full ‘Terminator’" in the future. 

Musk also said the world is only three to six years away from artificial generative intelligence. 

Electric car maker Tesla CEO Elon Musk

Tesla CEO Elon Musk talks to another CEO before a roundtable during the 6th edition of the "Choose France" Summit at the Chateau de Versailles, outside Paris on May 15, 2023.  ((Photo by LUDOVIC MARIN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) / Getty Images)

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"Arguably, we are on the event horizon of the black hole that is artificial superintelligence," he said.

Musk, the Tesla, SpaceX and Twitter chief, has a stake in the industry, using AI at his companies and creating startup X.AI, and said he sees the need for another business to rival that of Google and Microsoft. 

Twitter CEO Elon Musk speaks

Twitter CEO Elon Musk speaks at the "Twitter 2.0: From Conversations to Partnerships," marketing conference in Miami Beach, Florida, on April 18, 2023. (CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images) / Getty Images)

"I think there should be a significant third horse in the race," Musk, who signed a letter calling for a six-month-long moratorium on the training of systems more advanced than OpenAI's GPT-4, said. 

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While calling for regulation in the form of an "insight committee," and noting possible threats to elections from AI manipulation, Musk predicted that AI will likely lead to an "era of abundance."