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Musk: Government needs to regulate artificial intelligence

   Tesla, SpaceX CEO says AI poses 'fundamental existential risk for human
   civilization.'
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Musk: Government needs to regulate artificial intelligence

   Brett Molina, USA TODAY Published 11:44 a.m. ET July 17, 2017 | Updated
   3:47 p.m. ET July 17, 2017
   162 Shares facebook share twitter share email share email share

   IFRAME: 103755702

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   Elon Musk has called artificial intelligence "a fundamental risk to the
   existence of human civilization." Video provided by Newsy Newslook

   Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says the government should consider
   regulations for artificial intelligence because it poses "a fundamental
   existential risk for human civilization."

   Musk made the comments over the weekend during the National Governors
   Association's summer meeting in Providence, R.I.

   Musk says AI is the "scariest problem" because of its potential to harm
   humans beyond just disrupting the job market.

   IFRAME: https://www.youtube.com/embed/2C-A797y8dA?feature=oembed

   Musk wants the government to set regulations in place to root out
   threats early. "AI is a rare case where I think we need to be proactive
   in regulation than reactive," said Musk. "By the time we’re reactive in
   AI regulation, it’s too late."

   AI's more immediate impact will likely be economic, as robots continue
   to gain traction among companies.

   "There will certainly be a lot of job disruption because what’s going
   to happen is robots will be able to do everything better than us," he
   said.

   This is not the first time Musk has voiced concerns about the potential
   impact of AI. In a documentary from German filmmaker Werner Herzog,
   Musk warned of the significant threat AI could pose to humanity.

   "The biggest risk isn’t that AI will develop a will of its own, but
   that it will follow the will of people that establish its optimization
   function, and if that is not well thought out — even if intent is
   benign — it could have quite a bad outcome," Musk said.

   Once considered fantasy, AI is becoming more of a reality as tech
   companies incorporate it into more of its future plans. One key use of
   AI: the rise of digital voice assistants, including Amazon's Alexa,
   Apple's Siri and Google's Assistant.

   Follow Brett Molina on Twitter: @brettmolina23.
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   Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2v9QyPn

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