In the world where people are still experimenting on AIs, and see how the technology could aid humans in various tasks, there are two confronting sides.
On one side, people are so eager about this fascinating technology. They would do whatever they can to advance it, and make it help humanity for the better. On the other side, people are so afraid of it, that they fear a post-apocalyptic future where computers take over humanity.
Elon Musk is the world-renown billionaire.
The tycoon has a long list of companies under his belt, and an influence that cannot be compared to most if not all businessmen on Earth. And amongst his goal, is to make humans an inter-planetary species.
Through his SpaceX company, he leads a team to push beyond sanity, to being homo sapiens to Mars for the first time.
But there is a big issue, and this issue left Musk completely "speechless."
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When the world is captivated the advancements of generative AIs, popularized since the release of ChatGPT by OpenAI, Musk, one of its co-founders, was revealed to be dumbfounded when he realized that a would-be AI entrepreneur at the time pointed out a basic flaw in his much-hyped plan to colonize Mars.
According to various reports and insider interviews, it all began when Musk and Google DeepMind co-founder Demis Hassabis were talking about the Red Planet soon after they first met in 2012 at a conference that their shared investor had organized, PayPal's infamous founder Peter Thiel.
Hassabis, a man known for his ability to influencer rich men into funding his dreams, managed to literally knock Elon Musk off his feet and pride.
During a tour of SpaceX's headquarters, Musk, the South African-born billionaire, bragged about his grand plans to take humanity to Mars to escape global overpopulation and the other issues Earth is facing
Hassabis couldn't agree more, and he shared that belief.
By colonizing other planets, humanity can leave 'terra', and finally see Mother Earth through the distance.
But one caveat remains: if AI surpassed human intelligence, it could certainly follow humans off-planet, to Mars, and kill them there.
As one of the most successful men modern world has ever seen, and he is also known for debating and replying to pretty much every question thrown at him.
Musk has long been able to leave questioners with more questions than answers because sometimes, his answers answer deliver more context than they need to.
Rarely anyone can render Musk lost for words.
In this case, apparently, Musk had not considered that Earthbound AI problems could simply follow humans to Mars.
Read: Artificial Intelligence Is 'An Entity That Cannot Be Defeated'
Musk was highly optimistic about developing highly advanced, and extremely powerful rockets to bring humans 225 million kilometers to Mars, but he had no idea that killer robots could simply follow humans wherever they go through space.
In 2012, at least, Musk had apparently never considered that possibility.
The exchange, which Hassabis also recounted to Musk biographer Walter Isaacson, is surprising not only because it depicts how the notorious serial entrepreneur was left without anything to say, but also because it shows yet another hole in humanity's longstanding pipe dream to colonize Mars, and fly commercially to the planet.
Musk, who ended up investing to the company, also trashed the company when it took off.
"Just the nature of the AI that they're building is one that crushes all humans at all games," Musk said in 2020, referencing DeepMind's early innovation in AI that can defeat world-class humans at the game of Go, and old-school video games, like Star Craft II and Quake III Arena.
After all, Musk was never directly involved in the founding of the company, nor having a management role in the company, nor took part in its acquisition by Google.
"I mean, it’s basically the plotline in 'War Games.'"