Elon Musk, head of Tesla, SpaceX, and Boring Company, said early Monday morning countries competing for advances in artificial intelligence would "most likely" spark World War III.
His tweet came in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin saying the nation that "becomes the leader" in the development of artificial intelligence "will become the ruler of the world," according to The Verge.
Musk later replied to another Twitter user who speculated about an "automated" war.
Musk said last month there is "vastly more risk" in "AI safety" than North Korea.
The Tesla chief, along with Alphabet leader Mustafa Suleyman and over 100 other founders of robotics and artificial intelligence companies, called on the U.N. to ban the use of autonomous weapons in a letter written last month, The Guardian reported.
"Once developed, lethal autonomous weapons will permit armed conflict to be fought at a scale greater than ever, and at timescales faster than humans can comprehend," they wrote. "These can be weapons of terror, weapons that despots and terrorists use against innocent populations, and weapons hacked to behave in undesirable ways.
"We do not have long to act. Once this Pandora's box is opened, it will be hard to close."
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