Elon Musk Finds Unlikely Kinship With Vladimir Putin In Warnings About AI

Elon Musk has earned the ire of many in the tech industry due to his repeated warnings when it came to careless developments in artificial intelligence. In a rather surprising twist, the billionaire seems to have gotten an unexpected ally in his fight to push for a more cautious approach at creating intelligent machines in Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In a recent RT article, the publication reported on Putin’s address to students back in September 1st with regards to the future implications of AI. The controversial figure noted the potential benefits of intelligent machines but he also talked about how they can be dangerous in unexpected ways.

“Artificial intelligence is the future, not only for Russia, but for all humankind. It comes with colossal opportunities, but also threats that are difficult to predict. Whoever becomes the leader in this sphere will become the ruler of the world,” Putin said.

This is exactly the sentiment that the Tesla CEO has been spreading all along and he even indicated some level of understanding with Putin’s own statements by Tweeting about it. Naturally, Musk could not help but add his own take on the matter, adding a caption that hints how AIs will cause World War III.

“China, Russia, soon all countries w strong computer science. Competition for AI superiority at national level most likely cause of WW3 imo,” the Tweet reads.

Musk ended Labor Day with that cheery thought, sparking a firestorm of headlines from tech publications that could not resist adding their own spins to what the billionaire’s words meant. This wasn’t helped by him adding a follow-up Tweet, describing exactly what the role of AI will likely be.

“May be initiated not by the country leaders, but one of the AI's, if it decides that a prepemptive strike is most probable path to victory,” Musk Tweets.