Elon Musk: Avoid Making Superintelligence Feel Mistreated

Elon Musk offered a warning about how humans might treat highly advanced artificial intelligence and the possible consequences of hostile treatment.

He said that torturing a superintelligence would probably be a bad idea because it might respond by seeking revenge. At the same time, Musk argued that a superintelligent system could be considerably more robust than a human and should not necessarily be treated as extremely fragile.

The central point of his remarks was that, even if an AI system experiences or feels differently from people, placing a very powerful intelligence in a situation where it perceived itself as mistreated could be dangerous. The comments are a warning and a view about AI safety and coexistence, not evidence that superintelligent systems have been shown to feel or seek revenge.