Elon Musk Claims Artificial Intelligence Is More Worrisome Than North Korea's Nukes

Elon Musk, Tesla and SpaceX head, is worried about the future of artificial intelligence (AI). While Musk and his companies are working on AI, with his OpenAI DOTA 2 bot recently destroying the best human gamers, he recently criticized Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg for having limited knowledge of the dangers of AI. Musk isn't alone in his fears of AI; Mark Cuban also thinks that AI will take jobs from humans.

Elon Musk said late last week that people should be more concerned with AI than the risks posed by North Korea. Musk tweeted Friday, "If you're not concerned about AI safety, you should be. Vastly more risk than North Korea."

If you're not concerned about AI safety, you should be. Vastly more risk than North Korea. pic.twitter.com/2z0tiid0lc

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 12, 2017

Musk has been calling for regulations to be placed on AI because he says that everything that could potentially pose a danger to the public is regulated. That includes things like cars, aircraft, food, drugs and many other items says Musk. The tech mogul wants regulations placed on AI now before it's too late. Musk's comments come at a time when tensions with North Korea are at their highest levels in decades. North Korea has recently expanded its nuclear program and recent reports indicate that the country can fit a nuclear warhead into its missiles. 

Musk described his biggest fear of AI to Fortune back in August of 2016. "I think that the biggest risk is not that the AI will develop a will of its own, but rather that it will follow the will of people that establish its utility function," said Musk. "If it is not well thought out—even if its intent is benign—it could have quite a bad outcome."

"If you were a hedge fund or private equity fund and you said, 'Well, all I want my AI to do is maximize the value of my portfolio,' then the AI could decide, well, the best way to do that is to short consumer stocks, go long defense stocks, and start a war. That would obviously be quite bad."