"A way of making the future" where Eylon Mask talks and AI coexists at a high level

Venture capital investing in numerous startups "Y CombinatorInterview an individual who is driving the worldHow to Build the FutureIn the series, Ellon Mask who leads innovative enterprises such as SpaceX and Tesla appeared and talked about issues to be addressed by the present society and the concept of coexistence between AI and humans.

This interview with Elon Musk is from Y Combinator's How to Build the Future series
http://www.ycombinator.com/future/elon/

The interview starts with the question "If there are five problems existing in the world now?" Mr. Mask first cited "AI (artificial intelligence)" and said "AI will be the most influential human beings in the near future time axis", and the future is wonderful It is necessary to proceed with the development of AI in order to make it.


Next, Mr. Mask mentioned the research on genes. Mr. Mask says, "It would be wonderful if we could overcome diseases caused by heredity, dementia and Alzheimer's disease by re-programming (genetically reprogramming) genes."

And then we are raising technology to install a broadband interface that sends information to the human brain. Mr. Mask said, "In the current human body, the interface of information to the brain is narrowband, and in our current society, we can use e-mail, as a user who can use computers, phones and applications , "Third personality" existing on the digital.With these technologies, we can be said to be de facto "super-human beings", and the fact that digital technology is actually a way of human being It also has a big influence on it.

In addition, "In our brain, however, the communication bandwidth of the interface between the cerebral neocortex and the above" third personality "is extremely limited, solving the limits of that band "I believe that I am very important," he explains the importance of technologies to bring human technology and digital technology closer or to unite.

When I heard the grand idea, the interviewer asked Mr. Mask "from young people with ambition" What should I do to become the next Eulon mask? "What kind of things are you doing when you are young How are you doing and preparing for the impact of the subsequent society? "Asked. On the other hand, Mr. Mask answers as follows.

mask:
Well, first of all, when I was young, I did not think that I would be involved in what I am doing. The five things I was thinking about as a student, 25 years ago, are "life of mankind on multiple planets" "accelerating the transition to renewable energy" "remark to a wide range via the Internet" Genetic engineering "" Artificial intelligence (AI) ", but at that time I had no idea that it would be involved in these things.


mask:
In fact, what I was studying about when I was a student was in the field of how to automate the car, what I was learning there was a condenser that can store an extremely large amount of electric power "Super capacitorIt was about that. And then I studied at Stanford University which I went on with was an advanced energy storage technology for electric vehicles. After that, we stopped research to set up an Internet affiliated company. At that time, it was still a midway point where technological innovation about electric cars occurred, and I thought that it was still time-consuming. There are many doctorates in society about something useless for society, but I was challenging to produce useful things.

interviewer:
Do you need a doctorate in order to create useful things in the current society?

mask:
In many cases it will not be necessary.

interviewer:
What do I need to create useful items?

mask:
You will need some "quotation". The degree of influence can be determined by multiplying the difference showing "How much better" compared with the latest technology at the time and the number of people affected by it You can estimate. So, for example, even if the technology is extremely good, while the number of people affected is small, this is a wonderful thing. On the contrary, the same thing can be said even if the technology itself is not a big deal, even if there are a lot of people affected. This is so-called "Area under the curve(AUC: Area Under the Curve) "which is important in considering how useful it is.


interviewer:
In that sense, I think that launching SpaceX was very "crazy" at that time?

mask:
It certainly was crazy. At that time everyone thought so. Consider risk and returnRisk adjusted returnIf it was the ultimate goal, launching SpaceX was crazy. But that was not the goal I was thinking.

If there was no movement to make rocket technology advance, we would have never been able to jump out of the earth. What the huge aerospace industry is thinking is "How to make their old technology progress little by little" each year, and I am not interested in radical progress. In fact, it can be said that technology is backwards. In 1969, mankind was able to carry mankind to the moon with the Saturn 5 type rocket. However, now it is finally enough to send people to a low orbit (such as the International Space Station) where the Space Shuttle orbits the Earth, and all of the Space Shuttle has also been retired. This flow is a flow toward zero.

Technologies are not to be developed automatically. Technology evolves as people with an excellent brain make efforts to realize a crazy concept. This is obvious even if you look back on history. Ancient Egyptians could make huge pyramids, but now that technology has been lost. Also, it was a character at the timeHieroglyphsI have also been lost. The prosperity and decline of the Roman Empire after that is the same.


interviewer:
What I like about you during your episode is that you do not know what is unlikely to be scary and talk to someone a crazy idea towards anyone. Among the many crazy people I know, you are through. Where do you come from that idea and its strength that people do not mind if criticized?


mask:
I also have a strong fear of feeling. It is not that "emotions of fear are missing." There are important reasons to believe there, and since we feel that we need to proceed even with fear, we can do things.

mask:
For this, "fate of fate" may be some kind of power. By accepting "probability" (as opposed to "possibility"), the feelings of fear will be small. When I started SpaceX, I thought that there was no 10% chance of success (possibility), I thought that I might lose everything. But that will create some progress. Even though we are gone, we believe that someone else will take over the baton and advance further, by taking the first step. This is the same for Tesla. I thought that the probability of an emerging EV maker's success would be very low.

About realization of Mars migration
Mr. Mask asked about the feasibility of migration to Mars replied "There is a possibility". And for the question 'When can I go?', I answer as follows.

mask:
I do not want to be thought of as self-deception, but I think that "there is a way". "Success" here refers to the stage where Mars's colonies (colonies) self-replicate, but I think that it is possible. I did not know whether it was possible until several years ago, but I think that sending enough and necessary number of people to Mars probably within 10 years, possibly faster than that. I have to make sure that SpaceX will not be lost so far, and that myself will not be dead. Even if I disappear, someone will take over afterwards.


About AI
Finally, the interviewer on Artificial Intelligence (AI), whose pace of technological progress is getting very fast, "As you have made many remarks about AI so far, what is the bright future of AI? Would you please tell us your thoughts? " On the contrary, Mr. Mask gave a preface to "This is my prediction," and then, "I think that the best alternative that I can come up with is the" democratization of AI technology ". In other words, it means that AI is not controlled by a specific company or a few people, "reveals the idea that AI technology should not be occupied by someone of a certain person.


If a state-of-the-art AI is to be monopolized by someone, there is the possibility that excellent AI will be targeted by dictators and national intelligence agencies. Mr. Mask considers this situation to be extremely dangerous, and by opening the AI ​​technology widely, it is important to manage the state-of-the-art AI technology democratically and keep it in a state that anyone can obtain fairness I am preaching.

Regarding the biggest problems AI has, Mr. Mask is not to acquire the ability to increase AI's ability to do much more than to acquire the ability to go far beyond human beings, but also to monopolize by someone malicious It is claimed to be done. Therefore, Mr. Mask is a nonprofit organization that publishes AI openlyOpenAI"We are working on initiating initiatives to make AI widely shared property.

OpenAI Blog


At the same time that AI is shared and protected by launching the OpenAI mechanism, Mr. Mask talks about the concept of using AI to strengthen human brain function. Interview The aim is to "complement the narrowband brain interface" mentioned at the beginning. By fighting with AI by strengthening the connection between the cerebral neocortex and the "third personality" existing in the digital concept mentioned at the beginning of the interview, "AI · human symbiosis (AI -human symbiote) "is described.