Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk Photo: MIT

Thispostwas originally published onMashable.

There have already been several dire warnings fromTeslaandSpaceXfounderElon Muskin recent months regarding the perils of artificial intelligence, but this week he actually managed to raise the bar in terms of making AI seem scary.

First, according to Musk, AI was as dangerousas nuclear war. Now Musk is likening the possible battle between humans and computers in the future, termed by some as "the singularity," as a struggle for the soul of mankind itself.

How so? By invoking the one thing even those with little interest in technology fear the most: demons!

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In an hour-long interview for MIT, which held itsCentennial Symposiumlast week, Musk opened himself up to the audience for questions. Most of the questions were about space travel, but one audience member asked Musk for his thoughts on artificial intelligence, and that's when things got a bit spooky.

"I think we should be very careful about artificial intelligence," said Musk, the expression on his face suddenly turning very serious. "If I were to guess like what our biggest existential threat is, it's probably that. So we need to be very careful with the artificial intelligence. There should be some regulatory oversight maybe at the national and international level, just to make sure that we don't do something very foolish."

Sounds reasonable. Prudent even. A generally conservative approach to a potential technological issue facing our world in the future. Wise words.

But then

Original post:

We are 'summoning the demon' with AI: technologist Elon Musk