When Elon Musk met Jack Ma: Debate on AI, Mars, the end of civilisation

Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Chairman Jack Ma, two of the leading luminaries in the technology world, sparred against each other on Thursday on subjects ranging from the dangers of artificial intelligence, the need to explore Mars and the future of education. Held at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, the rare debate between China’s richest man and one of America’s more controversial billionaires began with thoughts on AI -- Ma is betting humans will prevail over machines, while Musk fears doomsday is coming -- but the conversation, which went viral on social media, soon transgressed into areas such as Mars exploration and aliens. I don’t think artificial intelligence is something terrible but human beings are smart enough to learn that.People like us -- street smart -- we’re never scared of that. Musk: I don’t know man, that’s like famous last words.If you go back 40 years ago, 50 years ago maybe, you had Pong -- that was just two rectangles and a square. Musk: going to get to a point where it just completely simulates a person, like many people simultaneously, in fact obviously there’s a strong argument that we’re in a simulation right now.