Elon Musk’s predictions about robots is the stuff of nightmares.
Twitter user Alex Medina captioned a promotional video of Boston Dynamics’ Atlas robot doing backflips and jumps in an obstacle course with the panicked caption: “We dead.” Musk responded to Medina by essentially telling him to buckle in for a lot more terrifying features to these humanoid robot advancements.
“This is nothing. In a few years, that bot will move so fast you’ll need a strobe light to see it. Sweet dreams…” Musk wrote.
Uh...
The Atlas robot is marketed as the “world’s most dynamic humanoid,” but even that impressive advancement might soon be eclipsed by artificial intelligence. The Tesla CEO followed up his creepy comment with a warning about the future of leaving such technology unchecked.
“Got to regulate AI/robotics like we do food, drugs, aircraft & cars,” Musk tweeted. “Public risks require public oversight. Getting rid of the FAA [wouldn’t] make flying safer. They’re there for good reason.”
So Musk is basically backing up every horror movie theory about artificial intelligence and robots ever. And this isn’t the first time the tech mogul has warned about these types of advancements. Musk said in September that artificial intelligence will probably be the spark that ignites a world war.
“China, Russia, soon all countries w strong computer science,” Musk wrote on Twitter in September. “Competition for AI superiority at national level most likely cause of WW3 imo.”
Well, hopefully Will Smith can protect humanity in the upcoming robot apocalypse.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story indicated the robot did frontflips in the video. It did backflips.