Elon Musk, the founder of private company SpaceX, is widely considered one of the strongest critics of artificial intelligence and he even stated that the advent of AI might turn into a dangerous weapon. He has also claimed that the potential outcome of artificial intelligence may turn out riskier than dealing with North Korea.
But now, Eric Schmidt, the former executive chairman of the Board of Directors of Alphabet, Google's parent company, has lashed out against Musk's views stating that the SpaceX founder has a wrong perception regarding AI.
All inventions have its own curse and boon
During a speech delivered at the Viva Technology conference in Paris, France, Schmidt said that Elon Musk does not know the potential of artificial intelligence.
"So, I believe that Elon is exactly wrong. So. My position is clear. And he is wrong because he doesn't understand the benefits that this technology will provide to making every human being smarter. And the fact of the matter is that AI and machine learning are so fundamentally good for humanity," said Schmidt, CNBC reported.
During the speech, Schmidt argued that making people smarter by using artificial intelligence is good for the society. He added that Elon Musk has only thought about the potential misuse of this technology.
"Over and over again, making people smarter is a net good. He is concerned about the possible misuse of this technology. And I am too. But today, the overwhelming benefit of this is positive. You would not invent the telephone because of the possible misuse of the telephone by evil people. No. You would build the telephone and you would try to figure out a way to police the misuse of the telephone," added Schmidt.
He also believes the impact of artificial intelligence in the society will help to rectify the number of human errors.
Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk criticize AI
In February 2018, Elon Musk delivered a speech at the South by South West (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas and there he criticized the advent of AI as well as argued with the authorities to frame regulations to make sure that everyone is regulating AI safely.
"This is a situation where you have a very serious danger to the public. There needs to be a public body that has insight and oversight so that everyone is delivering AI safely. This is extremely important. My point was AI is far more dangerous than nukes. So why do we have no regulatory oversight? It's insane," said Musk.
Previously, legendary theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking had also shared similar views regarding the dominance of AI in the human society. Several times he warned that emergence of artificial civilization could be the worst event in human history unless society finds a way to control its development.
