SINGAPORE (Sept 2): Elon Musk and Jack Ma matched wits publicly for the first time. And boy, they did not disappoint. An onstage debate between China’s richest man and the Tesla boss left a largely Chinese audience both awestruck and dumbfounded as the pair sparred over everything from the existence of aliens to the preservation of human consciousness.
Musk, alternating between tech visionary and larger-than-life Bond villain, argued that artificial intelligence (AI) will soon surpass the human race, that civilisation may end and hence humankind needed to explore the cosmos (specifically Mars) and that people are essentially dumb creatures circumscribed by genes.
But Musk, who appeared discombobulated at times following a late trans-Pacific flight, met his match in a fellow billionaire who parried him at every turn. The Alibaba Group Holding co-founder espoused a focus on life on Earth and argued that machines will never surpass their makers. Ma, the more polished and down-to-earth speaker, also invoked familiar stances on education and the need for “Love-Q” or LQ in addition to IQ to survive the future.
Overall, the Alibaba honcho came across as more reasonable than the erratic Musk, who several times trailed off into poorly articulated tangents such as the timeline of civilisation or pace of technological change (“It does seem like a long time... Is that good or bad? I dunno.”)
Just about the only thing they agreed on was that the global population was on the brink of collapse thanks to current birth rates — a looming disaster the planet is ill-prepared to tackle.
“Most people believe that we have too many people on the planet. This is an outdated view,” Musk told the World AI Conference in Shanghai as Ma nodded. “Assuming there’s a benevolent AI, the biggest problem the world will face in 20 years, is a population collapse. Not explosion. Collapse.”
The showdown was the highlight of the conference, which kicked off on Aug 29 in the shadow of a US-Chinese conflict that has at times appeared to pull the world to the brink of chaos. The Tesla and SpaceX founder’s very presence at a government-backed conference on AI was a signal to Washington, which is trying to contain China’s ascendancy and growing prowess in cutting-edge technology.
While the billionaire entrepreneur was careful to steer clear of the ongoing US-China trade war or longer-term geopolitical tensions, he spoke freely on almost everything else — including the possibility that life as we know it may end abruptly. “We don’t have much time,” Musk said. “This is the first time in the 4.5 billion-year history of Earth that we’ll be able to extend life beyond Earth,” he added. “Let us secure the future so that the light of consciousness is not extinguished.”
The debate at times turned heated, especially when Ma questioned his opponent’s belief that AI may someday prevail over the human race. “The biggest mistake I see people making is to assume they’re smart,” Musk countered. AI will be “much smarter than the smartest human you will ever know”.
Ma likened the view that humans will not be able to compete with their machine inventions in most aspects of life — Musk’s stance — to people of a century ago trying to out-run cars they manufacture. “I never in my life say human beings will be controlled by machines; it’s impossible,” said Ma, eliciting Musk’s trademark Bond-villain chortle and the retort: “I very much disagree with that. The biggest mistake I see people making is to assume they’re smart.”
