— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 4, 2017 Musk has not been shy about speaking about the potential dangers of AI. In 2014, he said, “I’m increasingly inclined to think there should be some regulatory oversight at the national and international level, just to make sure that we don’t do something very foolish. With artificial intelligence, we are summoning the demon. You know, in all those stories where there’s the guy with the pentagram and the holy water, and he’s like yeah, he’s sure he can control the demon. Didn’t work out.” In July, he spoke to a group of Democratic and Republican governors and asked them to begin making preemptive regulations and restrictions on AI because of the possibility of the widespread dissemination of fake news. Advertisement “AI is a fundamental risk to the existence of human civilization, in a way that car accidents, airplane crashes, faulty drugs, or bad food were not,” Musk said during the summer. In August, Musk, along with 115 other leading AI experts, signed a petition sent to the United Nations that asked for a ban on so-called “killer robots.” “Once developed, [autonomous weapons] will permit armed conflict to be fought at a scale greater than ever, and at timescales faster than humans can comprehend,” the letter said. “These can be weapons of terror, weapons that despots and terrorists use against innocent populations, and weapons hacked to behave in undesirable ways.” Now, though, Musk is warning about World War III. Even though Putin cautioned Friday about the use of AI, he also discussed the opportunities associated with the new technology. Advertisement “Artificial intelligence is the future, not only for Russia, but for all humankind,” Putin said, via RT. “It comes with colossal opportunities, but also threats that are difficult to predict. Whoever becomes the leader in this sphere will become the ruler of the world.” As the Verge notes, the U.S. and China are currently the leaders in AI research, though China has made it clear that it wants to be the nation that leads the way.