Although he could be considered a “social media addict,” Elon Musk has never shown interest in Facebook. Previously, this talented yet controversial billionaire bluntly declared Facebook to be a silly, pointless platform and urged everyone to stop using it. The two major companies he owns, SpaceX and Tesla, also do not have official fan pages on Facebook. Recently, on Friday (May 15), Musk took to Twitter to directly insult Mark Zuckerberg’s flagship product with a succinct status: “Facebook sucks“.
It’s not coincidental that Elon Musk suddenly felt compelled to publicly “throw shade” at Facebook. Recently, the social media’s AI director, Jerome Pesenti, criticized Musk for not understanding anything about artificial intelligence while being eager to boast about it. Among Musk’s viewpoints, his claim that “AI will become much smarter than humans, putting humanity in a dire situation” faced the strongest backlash from Jerome. This likely intensified Musk’s disdain for Facebook, and we all know that the Tesla CEO isn’t afraid of anyone on Twitter.
In August 2019, at the International AI Conference held in Shanghai, China, Elon Musk had the opportunity to discuss this technology with billionaire Jack Ma. He stated: “I believe most of us underestimate the capabilities of AI. They simply think of it as a smart product similar to humans. But no, its potential is much greater than that. In my view, AI will soon possess intelligence surpassing that of the smartest people in the world“.
Previously, in 2017, Musk had also repeatedly emphasized the risks that AI could pose to humanity in the near future. The Tesla CEO remarked: “AI is a threat to the survival of humanity. I have had the opportunity to interact with the most advanced AI models available today, and believe me, we have reason to be afraid“.
Elon Musk’s viewpoint that AI will soon become smarter than humans and threaten humanity has faced a great deal of criticism from technology experts worldwide.
Musk’s perspective may be accurate, or it may not be. But it is clear that he does not speak frivolously. In July 2016, he founded Neuralink with the aim of addressing knowledge gaps and narrowing the gap between humans and advanced AI technologies, ensuring it can never surpass humanity. Additionally, Musk is actively investing in potential AI startups worldwide.
However, Musk’s views on artificial intelligence have faced significant opposition from many prominent figures in the tech world. Billionaire Bill Gates has stated that the development of AI will open up many new opportunities for humanity and that there is no need to worry excessively about the prospect of robots becoming smarter than us. Even Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, has criticized Musk’s thoughts on AI as unfounded, nonsensical, and irresponsible.
Elon Musk has also expressed particular concern about AGI – a theoretical form of AI with the ability to learn and adapt like humans. However, Jerome Pesenti quickly dismissed this: “There is no technology called AGI. It will still be a long time before artificial intelligence approaches human levels of intelligence“. And perhaps unable to argue with one of the leading experts in the field of AI, Musk could only sulk and turn to criticize Facebook instead.
According to BusinessInsider