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Elon Musk Says AI Poses More Risk Than North Korea

Musk has been a pretty vocal critic of AI, and his comments come amid escalating tensions between the U.S. and North Korea.

By: Lindsey Pulse

Posted at 4:45 PM, Aug 12, 2017

and last updated 2017-08-12 16:45:33-04

Elon Musk seems kind of nervous about the future of artificial intelligence — but not enough to stop developing it.

The tech industry guru tweeted: "If you're not concerned about AI safety, you should be. Vastly more risk than North Korea."

The tweet came after an AI bot beat a professional esports player during an international gaming competition — twice.

Mind you, the bot that beat the player was developed by one of Musk's own startups, OpenAI. The company promotes developing safe artificial intelligence.

Musk has been pretty vocal about criticizing AI, but his most recent comments are especially topical.

North Korea has threatened to fire ballistic missiles near the U.S. territory of Guam amid escalating tensions over the North Korean nuclear program.

But Musk isn't saying we should put an end to AI; he just wants to see it regulated. He followed the North Korea tweet by saying: "Everything ... that's a danger to the public is regulated. AI should be too."