Elon Musk: We need to regulate AI before ‘it’s too late’

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is calling for regulation of artificial intelligence (AI), arguing that “by the time we are reactive in AI regulation, it’s too late.”

At the U.S. National Governors Association summer meeting in Providence, R.I., Musk said that the government’s current framework for regulation would be dangerous with AI because of the risk it poses to humanity.

“Normally, the way regulations are set up is when a bunch of bad things happen, there’s a public outcry, and after many years a regulatory agency is set up to regulate that industry,” reports the Guardian.

{mosads}“It takes forever. That, in the past, has been bad but not something which represented a fundamental risk to the existence of civilization,” Musk continued.

Musk has said before that AI poses an existential risk to humanity.

“With artificial intelligence, we are summoning the demon. In all those stories where there’s the guy with the pentagram and the holy water, it’s like — yeah, he’s sure he can control the demon. Doesn’t work out,” said Musk.

In Congress, lawmakers have expressed interest in watching AI and potentially regulating it in the future. Earlier in the year, Reps. John Delaney (D-Md.) and Pete Olson (R-Texas) announced the founding of the AI Caucus.

Delaney told reporters in June, though, that the caucus was more interested in a wait-and-see approach on AI regulation, to avoid potentially stifling innovation.