The time will come when artificial intelligence (AI), replaces all jobs, according to SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk.
“I think we are seeing the most disruptive force in history here,” Mr. Musk, who owns social media platform X, told U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Mr. Sunak was in a telecast conversation with Mr. Musk at the end of a two-day summit on AI safety held by the British government in Bletchley Park.
“...We will have [for] the first time something that is smarter than the smartest human,” Mr. Musk said.
“There will come a point where no job is needed,” he said, adding that it was hard to tell when that point would be reached. and that human beings will be challenged to find meaning in their lives.
Mr. Musk said that, on balance, “most likely” AI would be a force for good, but there was a chance of things going bad.
“I think there might be, at times, too much optimism about technology and I say that as a technologist,” he said.
At another point in their interview, Mr. Musk said that in the future there would not be universal basic income but universal high income, although he did not explain the mechanism through which this would be achieved.
Mr. Musk also backed Mr. Sunak’s controversial decision to invite China to the AI Safety Summit, saying that if Beijing was not on the guest list it would be “pointless”. He argued that China was interested in AI safety (as opposed to non-regulated development) and that he had, on a recent visit to China, engaged with the leadership in Beijing on this.
“We need everyone to approach us in a similar way if we’re going to have a realistic chance of resolving it,” Mr. Sunak said. China was one of the signatories - along with India, the U.S., the U.K. and 24 other countries, of the “Bletchley Declaration”, a communique signed on Wednesday, which agrees, among other things, that the risks of AI need to be collectively managed.
Mr. Musk backed the call for AI regulation saying that while “it will be annoying” it would be good to have a “referee”. He thanked Mr. Sunak for hosting the summit on AI safety saying it would go down in history as being very important.
Mr. Musk pointed to need for regulation, as matters of public safety were involved in the case of a “digital super intelligence.”
