Should You Be Worried About The Rise Of AI?

Tech titans Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk recently slugged it out online over the possible threat artificial intelligence might one day pose to the human race, although you could be forgiven if you don’t see why this seems like a pressing question.

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Thanks to AI, computers are learning to do a variety of tasks that have long eluded them — everything from driving cars to detecting cancerous skin lesions to writing news stories. But Musk, the founder of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, worries that AI systems could soon surpass humans, potentially leading to our deliberate (or inadvertent) extinction.

Two weeks ago, Musk warned U.S. governors to get educated and start considering ways to regulate AI in order to ward off the threat. “Once there is awareness, people will be extremely afraid,” he said at the time.

Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook, took exception. In a Facebook Live feed recorded Saturday in front of his barbecue smoker, Zuckerberg hit back at Musk, saying people who “drum up these doomsday scenarios” are “pretty irresponsible.” On Tuesday, Musk slammed back on Twitter , writing that “I’ve talked to Mark about this. His understanding of the subject is limited.”

Here’s a look at what’s behind this high-tech flare-up — and what you should and shouldn’t be worried about.

WHAT IS AI, ANYWAY?

Back in 1956, scholars gathered at Dartmouth College to begin considering how to build computers that could improve themselves and take on problems that only humans could handle . That’s still a workable definition of artificial intelligence.

An initial burst of enthusiasm at the time, however, devolved into an “AI winter” lasting many decades as early efforts largely failed to create machines that could think and learn — or even listen, see or speak.