Elon Musk, the hi-tech business man and inventor is popularly known for his different business inventions such as SpaceX and Tesla, he also plays an important part in PayPal as the co-founder of the company.
The South African-born businessman is well ahead of some of his rivals with his list of futuristic tech inventions such as SpaceX, Hyperloop, Tesla Motors and more. Along with this, Musk has made some bold predictions in the tech industry- some of which we are already seeing come to life.
This may explain Musk’s $16.1 billion net worth, which makes him the 80th richest person in the world. He was also listed as the 21st most powerful person in the world on Forbes list of The World’s Most Powerful People.
Elon Musk has made a vast array of predictions regarding the future of technology, but CBR narrows it down with seven of Musk’s biggest predictions about future technology.
Read more: 7 incredible Bill Gates predictions for future technology
1. Artificial Intelligence a threat to the human race
As the future of technology moves towards a world of automation and robotics, many have shared their excitement while many more share their concerns.
The rise of AI and robotics has left many on edge, especially in industries such as healthcare, where the idea of robot doctors is widely discussed. Although, surprisingly there has been a noticeable balance between those that completely cancel out the idea and those that welcome it.
In an interview with Edge.org in 2014, Musk said: “The risk of something seriously dangerous happening is in the five year time frame, ten years at most.”
When talking about AI, Musk said: “AI is something that is risky at the civilisation level, not merely at the individual risk level, and that’s why it really demands a lot of safety research.”
In a recent survey from PwC entitled ‘What doctor? Why AI and robotics will define New Health’ more than a quarter of those surveyed would actually trust robots with heart surgery, rather than doctors.
There have been many warnings about the likelihood of robots doctors over the years, but Elon Musk did make us all aware that we were getting closer to robot uprising in 2014. The AI expert doesn’t seem to put all his trust into it as he expects it to cause a threat to the human race.
Therefore, Musk’s prediction that AI will cause threat to human race can be seen coming to reality already as the concern of robot doctors coming into the healthcare industry for instance, has been addressed amongst many. Although surveys, like the above, show some in favour of robot doctors the invention can also be regarded as a threat to human race as it may lead to putting humans out of jobs.
So he’s predicted Robo’Docs, what else could AI cause?