Musk disses Zuckerberg over knowledge of AI

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has given Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg a very public b*tch-slap over Twitter, accusing the social media guru of not knowing much about the future of AI.

So while this might not directly news impacting the telco industry, the AI momentum is certainly making waves in the sector, so we thought you should know about it. And, we also thought it was a pretty funny story…

We can imagine that b*tching about other CEOs, especially from those who are used to bathing in the limelight, is quite common behind closed doors, but out in the open like this is quite a rarity. It usually follows a period of time of animosity between the pair, but this seems to come a bit out of the blue.

The saga dates back to comments made by Musk, where he warned of the future of AI. This warning wasn’t necessarily that he was a Terminator style future, but that regulation needs to be proactive not reactive. There are points of no-return when it comes to AI, so regulation needs to be ahead of these points.

Zuckerberg entered the fray this weekend during a Facebook livestream when he was chatting to fans. One question brought up Musk’s interview to which Zuckerberg commented that people should be more positive when it comes to the future and development of technology. There is a risk that fear will hold back the development of such technologies, so we see where Zuckerberg is coming from.

It wasn’t necessarily a shot at Musk (only Zuckerberg will actually know whether it was), but perhaps a wider comment on sceptics and technophobes. In any case, the Tesla supremo took it personally and reacted with a relatively underhanded and b*tchy comment on Twitter.

Both men have a point to be completely honest. Regulators are often miles behind the development of technology, which cannot be the case with AI. When you look at data privacy and sensitivity issues, regulators need to have their game faces on.

But, AI holds the potential to not only make businesses better, but our daily lives as well. It could make things safer, more efficient, cheaper and more enjoyable. The development of such a revolution should not be held back because those who work for overseers are lesser than those developing the technology.

A public spat of this nature could be fun to watch escalate, but both men have good points. Perhaps they shouldn’t take it so personally.