Elon Musk 'exactly wrong' on AI: Ex-Google chief
San Francisco, May 26 : Tesla and SpaceX Founder Elon Musk's skepticism about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its impact on human beings is "exactly wrong," former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has said.
Musk thinks that AI is bad for humanity and may spark World War III. "I think Elon is exactly wrong" about AI, Schmidt said during the "VivaTech" conference in Paris on Friday.
"Musk is concerned about the possible misuse of this technology and I am too but I am more convinced by the overwhelming benefit of AI," tech website CNET quoted Schmidt as saying.
"AI will make people smarter and this will be a net gain," said Schmidt who is currently a board member of Alphabet, Google's parent company.
Earlier, during the same event, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg - who has been in verbal spat with Musk over AI for long -- expressed optimism about the possibilities of AI.
"I think that AI is going to unlock a huge amount of positive things, whether that's helping to identify and cure diseases, to help cars drive more safely, to help keep our communities safe," he was quoted as saying.
Mush recently warned that if not regulated or controlled soon, AI will become an "immortal dictator" and there will be no escape for humans.
"At least when there's an evil dictator, that human is going to die. But for an AI there would be no death. It would live forever, and then you'd have an immortal dictator, from which we could never escape," he said in a new documentary titled "Do You Trust This Computer?"
Musk has always been a critic of AI and asked for stiff regulations to curb the technology. In a recent tweet, Musk said that people should be more concerned with AI than the risk posed by North Korea.
"If you're not concerned about AI safety, you should be. Vastly more risk than North Korea," Musk tweeted.
Musk has also quit the board of OpenAI, a non-profit AI research company he co-founded that aims to promote and develop friendly AI that benefits the humanity.
In a recent public spat with Zuckerberg, Musk said: "I've talked to Mark about this (AI). His understanding of the subject is limited".
Zuckerberg replied: "I think people who are naysayers and try to drum up these doomsday scenarios -- I just, I don't understand it. It's really negative and in some ways I actually think it is pretty irresponsible."
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Sambhal violence orchestrated by BJP, govt to divert attention from poll rigging: Akhilesh Yadav
Lucknow (PTI): Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday alleged the violence in Uttar Pradesh's Sambhal district over the survey of a mosque was "orchestrated" by the BJP, the government and the administration "to divert attention from electoral malpractice".
Police used tear gas and "minor force" in the face of stone pelting by locals in Sambhal on Sunday as tension escalated during a second survey of the Mughal-era mosque, claimed to be originally the site of an ancient Hindu temple.
Ten people have been detained and a probe was launched into the violence, an official said.
Tension has been brewing in Sambhal over the past few days after the Jama Masjid was surveyed last Tuesday on the orders of a local court following a petition that claimed that a Harihar temple stood at the site.
A day after the Uttar Pradesh bypoll results were declared and the Samajwadi Party managed to win just two seats while the BJP and its ally RLD bagged the other seven, Yadav levelled serious allegations against the police and administration.
"A serious incident occurred in Sambhal. A survey team was deliberately sent in the morning to disrupt discussions about the elections. The intention was to create chaos so that no debate on election issues could happen," the Samajwadi Party chief claimed.
Citing reports, he said several people were injured in the violence in Sambhal and asked when a survey of the mosque was already done, why was a new survey conducted again and "that too in the morning and without preparation?"
"I don't want to go into the legal or procedural aspects, but the other side was not even heard. This was intentionally done to provoke emotions and avoid discussions on election rigging," Yadav said.
"What happened in Sambhal was orchestrated by the BJP, the government and the administration to divert attention from electoral malpractices," the former UP chief minister alleged.
Asserting that in democracy, true victory comes from the people, not the system, he said, "The new democracy created by the BJP ensures that people cannot vote while the system dominates."
He added that whenever an impartial investigation takes place, and the truth comes out through booth recordings and CCTV footage, it will be evident that "voters did not cast their votes and someone else became the voter inside the booth".
Yadav claimed that on the polling day, the police and the administration removed the Samajwadi Party's almost all booth agents and many supporters who wanted to vote.
"If voters were prevented from voting, then who cast the votes? If Samajwadi Party votes didn't reach those booths and our candidate didn't get support, then who voted there? This is a serious issue," he said.
"Additionally, there were two types of slips, -- one with a red mark and another regular slip. We raised this issue on the voting day itself, stating that the administration had created such arrangements, leading to discrimination," Yadav alleged.
The Samajwadi Party's candidate for the Kundarki assembly bypoll Haji Rizwan too has alleged that his supporters were prevented from voting.
The BJP's Ramveer Singh won the bypoll in the Kundarki seat by a margin of over 1.45 lakh votes.
