Yesterday I watched Elon Musk being asked by CNBC's David Faber: How to advise children when we face the challenges coming from AI: "人工智能" (pronounced rén gōng zhì néng) Artificial Intelligence. What are you going to tell them about value?
Musk sank deep into contemplation, and then said it was a "tough question to answer." But he will tell them "to follow their hearts in terms of what they find interesting to do or fulfilling to do and try to be as useful as possible to society."
"If we do get to a sort of like magic genie situation where you could ask the AI for anything, and let’s say it’s even the benign scenario, how do we actually find fulfillment? How do we find meaning in life if the AI could do your job better than you can?" Musk said.
Musk finds it “demotivating." "I put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into building the companies," "I’m like, should I be doing this because if I am sacrificing time with friends and family… but then ultimately the AI could do all these things, does that make sense?"
"To some extent, I have to have a suspension of disbelief in order to be motivated. So, I guess I would say, just work on things that you find interesting, fulfilling and that contributes some good to the rest of the society." This he said twice! Not that he runs out of words but he finds it crucial.